Tami' Frappato 2017

Tami' is a project Arianna Occhipinti launched with a group of friends in 2009 to produce accessible, naturally made wines from organic Sicilian vineyards. The Frappato is sourced from organically farmed vineyards in the Vittoria area of southeastern Sicily, where loose red sandy soils sit over limestone and a tufa layer at roughly 90 centimeters depth. The appellation is Terre Siciliane IGT, which allows for the single-varietal, minimal-intervention approach used here.

Winemaking is kept deliberately simple. Grapes are harvested by hand, fermented with indigenous yeasts, and left in contact with the skins for one week before being transferred to stainless steel, where the wine ages for six months. No oak is used at any stage. Though Arianna oversees the winemaking, the wines are not produced at her Occhipinti cellar.

Frappato is a thin-skinned, low-yield Sicilian grape genetically linked to Sangiovese. It produces pale, translucent red wines with naturally high acidity, soft tannins, and pronounced floral and red-fruit aromatics. In the Vittoria area, the sandy soils amplify its light, aromatic qualities. The result is a wine built for the table rather than the cellar, best enjoyed within a few years of harvest.