Frappato & Nero d’Avola, Sicily, Italy
Occhipinti is helmed by genius winemaker/beautiful life hero Arianna Occhipinti, who is basically winemaking royalty: her uncle is Giusto Occhipinti, one of the founders of the legendary COS. Arianna has wine in her veins, & you can taste her intuitive connection to the practice of winemaking in her sweeping, elegant bottles, as whimsical as they are precise. Blended from two equally delish but wildly divergent local grapes, lithe, Gamayesque Frappato does a little waltz around sapid, inky Nero d’Avola, who simply taps its foot. This red is so vivid, like snapping from black-and-white into technicolour, exuberant & Loireish. Crunchy cranberry, bright & nervy, Sicilian seabreeze. Pairs brilliantly with spaghetti alla Norma, open-toed sandals & napping on a yacht.