COS, a famous wine producer in Sicily with amphora and cow horns

“The vineyard is our bank savings so we must protect it,” says Giusto Occhipinti at COS winery in Sicily. He founded COS with two friends in the early 1980′s and now runs it together with his daughter Arianna Occhipinti.

COS is located in the south-east of Sicily, 10 kilometres from the town of Vittoria. The total vineyard area includes a little short of 30 hectares of vines. The soil diversity is important but all over the vineyard the soil is poor and limestone is mostly found 30-60 centimetres down into the ground, under a layer of red clay. But although the soil is poor, he never adds anything to nourish it, not even organic fertilizers. “If you do”, he says, “you change the terroir.” Read more in Britt’s article here: COS – biodynamics and amphora in Sicily

Giusto Occhipinti, COS, taking a wine sample from a tank, copyright BKWine Photography

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