2018 Il Frappato di Vittoria
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Tasting notes
The Arianna Occhipinti 2018 Il Frappato is a little tight and shy to start, but the wine slowly reveals the cassis and sour cherry aromas that come so naturally to Frappato. The wine is punchy and especially bright, with a silky and streamlined texture that makes it a good pairing partner to white meats or even a baked fish. Il Frappato delivers a level of varietal purity that is quite special (with 14 months of aging in Slavonian oak casks). Production is 35,000 bottles.
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Average Score
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
Eric Guido, Vinous
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The 2018 Frappato is seductive and perfumed, as crushed stone gives way to violet pastille, sweet plums and hints of grilled citrus. It’s silky in texture, quite savory and vivid, with notes that are sometimes blackberries and at other times cranberries, tinged with saline-minerality and inner herbal notes. The 2018 is persistent, only lightly structured, and packed full of tension with a sweet and sour display of wild berries and lavender that lingers incredibly long. The Frappato ferments with indigenous yeast and spends 30 days macerating on the skins before being refined for 14 months in neutral 25-hectoliter Slavonian oak barrels. I’d recommend another year of cellaring just to soften this expression a bit.