Azienda Agricola COS, Nero d'Avola & Frappato, Vittoria Rosso, Sicily, Italy 2019

60% Nero d'Avola, 40% Frappato

Vivid ruby red in color, the COS Cerasuolo is a delicious and complex medium-bodied red with notes of dried cherry, chocolate, smoke, wild herbs, and exotic spices. 

The winery was founded in 1980 by three friends, Giambattista Cilia, Giusto Occhipinti, and Cirino Strano. The initials of their last names form the winery’s name. Giusto Occhipinti of COS is a benchmark producer in the Vittoria appellation of Sicily, and certainly one of the most important and influential producers in all of Sicily, if not Italy as a whole. It was the hard work and dedication of producers such as COS who showed the potential of Sicily’s terroir and drew attention to the island, especially its ability to produce complex, pure and fresh wines, despite its location at the very southern tip of Italy.

Throughout the winery's entire range there is a focus on elegance and purity, especially the joyous, floral Frappato – Sicily’s answer to Cru Beaujolais – and the spicy, fruit-forward Nero di Lupo (Nero D’Avola). The Frappato is aged in tank, the Nero d'Avola in oak casks.

Sourced from estate vineyards in Vittoria, Sicily. The soil is red soil of medium consistency; made up of subalpine sands composed of limestone and silica. Grapes are hand-harvested from vines averaging 25 years of age. The wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation in concrete tanks on the skins with indigenous yeast. It is then aged in Slavonian oak botti for eighteen months followed by one year in the bottle before release.

Farmed organically.