2022 COS Terre Siciliane - Zibbibo in Pithos

Giambattista Cilia, Giusto Occhipinti, and Cirino Strano created COS in 1980 outside the town of Vittoria in southeast Sicily. The area is best known for Cerasuolo di Vittoria, a blend of Nero d’Avola and Frappato, and indeed, COS’s Cerasuolos are among the best-selling Sicilian wines in our store. But COS makes a broad range of interesting wines, with this one arguably being the most edgy and particolare, as Italians like to say. And yet, it’s based on two very old traditions: the zibibbo grape (a.k.a. moscato di Alessandria) was attested in Sicily in 1563 and may well have originated there, and clay amphorae have been used for transporting (and perhaps for fermenting and aging) wine in Sicily for at least 6000 years. “Pithos” is the old Greek name for amphora. Zibibbo in Pithos is a dry moscato grown in volcanic and sandy limestone soils near Marsala, in the western corner of Sicily. Farming is certified organic and practicing biodynamic. Spontaneous fermentation and six months of ag