Details

This wine has a brilliant ruby red colour. On the nose there’s pleasing and refined aromas of black cherry, blackberry and black plum followed by aromas of raspberry, violet and tobacco. On the palate the black and red fruits continue with well integrated, grippy tannins. This is a really well balanced wine with a good acidity and a long finish.

 

Cerasuolo di Vittoria has been a DOC quality wine since 1973 and was promoted to DOCG in 2005, making it officially the first and only Sicilian ‘Garantita’, the highest quality level of Italian wine. One of the more obscure rules that this DOCG has is that it now requires 13% abv, this 2019 is 12.5%. So exactly the same wine as previous vintages of Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG, from the same vineyards and made the same way however this year it has to be labelled ‘Vittoria Rosso’ DOC.  The permitted grape varieties are Nero d’Avola which gives body and depth and Frappato which fresh fruitiness and a certain floral quality. All around a lovely wine

 

ABV 12.5%

Vegetarian/ Vegan Friendly

 

 

THE WINERY

Founded in 1980 by three friends, Giambattista Cilia, Giusto Occhipinti and Cirino Strano, the combined first initials of their surnames giving the name of the winery. They are situated in the town of Vittoria near the southern tip of Sicily.

In 1980, they were the youngest wine producers in Italy. They received an old family winery from Giambattista Cilia’s father Giuseppe and the nearby vineyard of bush trained vines in the town of Bastonaca. In October 1980 they harvested their first vintage and made just 1,470 bottles. COS began its adventure that would one day lead to the transformation of Cerasuolo di Vittoria.

The winery follows the principles of organic and biodynamic faming in order to help the vines find and maintain a balance with nature in order to be able to express their true character and that of their terroir. For vinification, they decided to use terracotta vases that left no traces or aromas on the wine but were completely neutral vessels with spontaneous fermentation on skins and aged in Slovenian oak.  In 2005, they made the first wine that bore the Denominazione d’origins Controllata e Garantita (D.O.C.G.) designation, the only one in Sicily. Today COS is associated not only with the success of Cerasuolo di Vittoria but also with rigor and quality. It’s thanks to these three friends that the region of Cerasuolo di Vittoria was reborn and the area around Vittoria is thriving with its extraordinary wines.