COS Zibibbo in Pithos Orange Wine (Amphora)

The Wine

Any wine from COS that includes the word "Pithos" in the title indicates the wine spent time in their hand-made amphorae. One of the first modern adopters of this ancient winemaking technique, COS tested various sources before settling on the amphorae from a boutique producer in Spain. The amphorae were produced one at a time and the full array (see pic) took many years to complete and deliver. 

The Winery

Giusto Occhipinti of C.O.S. is one of the most important and influential producers in Sicily if not all of Italy. And though Giusto is at the Core of COS Winery, it was founded in 1980 by three 20-year-old friends, Giambattista Cilia, Giusto Occhipinti, and Cirino Strano - each friend contributing the first letter of their last name to create the name of COS winery. One of the trio split off early on to pursue a medical career, but the brand lives on as one of the most influential producers of Sicily, a crazy innovator who raised the bar for all other Sicilian winemakers for the past 40 years.

Their facility itself dates back to a hundred years before COS was founded - the 1880’s - a period in time when the demand for Sicilian wines was huge. Phylloxera had devastated many of the world’s top wine-growing regions, but it had not yet reached the island.

Sicily has a long history of winemaking, dating back to the 8th century BC when the Greeks first planted grapes in the eastern part of the Island. But its reputation for top-quality fine wines is only recent! And COS was one of the producers whose wines showcased the potential of Sicily’s terroir and drew attention to the island, especially its ability to produce complex, pure and fresh wines - a style enhanced by their soils of limestone and red clay.

For Giusto, “the vineyard is like our life’s savings in the bank, so we must protect it”, which means they follow organic and biodynamic practices that support the health of the soil above all else. This has been true since their start in 1980, long before today's "Natural Wine" hipsters were even born. Vittoria's climate also helps their efforts - being warm and dry lowers the risk of unwanted mold and fungus.

As a goal, Giusto seeks to have the characteristics of the soil conveyed into the wines themselves. To that end, he did extensive research on aging vessels and eventually decided on a combination of:

• 440-liter clay amphorae sourced from Spain
• Large neutral botti
• And concrete tanks (used mostly for the Frappato).

Clay is slightly porous, like oak, but has the advantage that it imparts no flavor to the wine than even the large, neutral oak casks (Botti). All aging at the winery is done in one of these vessels. Stainless steel is used only for assembling wines prior to bottling.

Extended skin contact is used for many of the wines, the skins lending the wines a natural preservative that permits the use of less SO2, of which little or none is used during vinification and only minimal additions are added at bottling to assure the wine's long livelihood.