2021 C.O.S. Frappato Terre Siciliane IGT Sicily 750 ml

COS hails from the warm, sun-kissed, far southern reaches of Sicily. That might lead you to expect something black and burly, but this wine—with its floral nose of red berries accented by hints of tobacco and spices—has more in common with ethereal Burgundy.

That’s the magic of COS…and the Frappato grape. Frappato is frequently used in the blended Cerasuolo di Vittoria wines of the region (Sicily’s only DOCG for red wines) for its lively fruit and wonderfully floral character, but on its own, few other reds can match it for freshness, delicacy, and sheer drinkability. When COS started, few wineries were willing to give it a spotlight.

In the late 1970s, outside of the town of Ragusa in southeastern Sicily, Giambattista Cilia, Giusto Occhipinti, and Cirino Strano (the C, O, and S of COS) dreamt of reviving the island’s ancient viniculture, which dates back to the third century BCE. The three young men wanted to make the wine the traditional way, focusing on biodynamic farming and autochthonous grape varieties like Frappato. 

When they started, those grapes—and Sicilian wine in general—weren’t even a twinkle in the wine world’s eye, but their success inspired a generation of younger winegrowers to take up the mantle of authentically Sicilian viniculture. Now, you’ll find wines from Vittoria on MICHELIN-starred wine lists across the US and Europe.

COS ferments the wine with native yeasts in open-top concrete tanks—the same way they’ve done it for years. They follow it up with eight months of aging in concrete, which allows for gentle breathability in degrees without imparting oak flavor, before bottling. The bottle itself is eminently distinctive, designed to resemble one unearthed when excavating the property.