On October 5, 1980, three friends in their early twenties pressed 1,470 bottles of wine in a borrowed family cellar in Vittoria. They were, by their own account, the youngest wine producers in Italy at the time. Four decades later, COS is the reference point for southeastern Sicily.
Backstory
COS takes its name from the surnames of its three founders: Giambattista Cilia, Cirino Strano, and Giusto Occhipinti. The project began in 1980 in an old winery belonging to Cilia's father, alongside a nearby vineyard at Bastonaca. The estate's headquarters in the Fontane district was completed in 2003.
More than any other producer, COS is credited with rescuing Cerasuolo di Vittoria from near extinction. When Cerasuolo di Vittoria became Sicily's first and only DOCG in 2005, COS had already spent twenty-five years championing the wine.
The Region
The vineyards sit in Vittoria, in the province of Ragusa, in the far southeast of Sicily. Vines grow at roughly 230 meters above sea level on red soils layered over sub-Apennine sands of Pliocene origin, a limestone and siliceous mix that gives the wines their lift and salinity.
Vineyards & Farming
COS farms biodynamically, following the principles of Rudolf Steiner. The estate works bush-trained vines ranging from roughly 10 to 50 years old, planted to the native Sicilian grapes Nero d'Avola and Frappato di Vittoria, along with whites including Grecanico, Grillo, and Zibibbo. The family also tends 18 hectares of olive trees at Piraino, near Chiaramonte Gulfi.
Winemaking
Occhipinti's research into ancient vessels took him to the talhas of Portugal, the tinajas of Spain, and the qvevri of Georgia. In 2000 the winery debuted its Pithos wines, named after the Greek word for a large clay jar. Since 2007 COS has fermented and aged a large share of its production in terracotta amphorae buried in the cellar, today numbering roughly 150 vessels and counting among the largest collections of its kind. The wines are made with native yeasts and minimal intervention.
The Wines
The flagship Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico DOCG blends Nero d'Avola and Frappato. The Pithos Rosso is essentially that same blend fermented and aged in amphora, while two Pithos whites receive the same skin-contact, clay-vessel treatment. The range also includes a varietal Frappato, the Nero di Lupo, and a metodo classico sparkling wine.