COS Pithos Bianco 2021

“100% Grecanico. A super fresh, almost minty nose leads into a full but tense, deeply layered wine showing nice mineral definition and taught acidity. The long skin contact and amphora movement of the lees provide an additional level of complexity. This wine shows well now, but has plenty in reserve for 3-5 years of bottle aging… Indigenous yeast whole berry fermentation lasting 10-15 days takes place in amphorae. Aged and aditional 7 months on the skins in amphorae for a total of 240 days. Pithos is the Greek word for amphora… Giusto Occhipinti of COS is a benchmark producer in the Vittoria appellation of Sicily, and certainly one of the most important and influential producers in all of Sicily if not Italy as a whole… For Giusto, “the vineyard is like our life’s savings in the bank, so we must protect it.” Protecting it means that they work organically and biodynamically in order to support the health of the soil. In fact, they have never used any synthetic or chemical additives in the vineyard since the outset in 1980...Extended skin contact is used for many of the wines, including whites. Giusto believes that the skins act as a natural preservative thus permitting the use of lower doses of sulfur." -Beaune Imports