2007 Occhipinti Il Frapatto

O

Oswaldo Costa

Oswaldo Costa
2007 Occhipinti Il Frapatto Sicilia IGT 12.5%
Seductive cocktail of strawberry confit and herbs, lovely and distinctive. So fresh and sylvan that you can picture hares hopping in the glade. Before food, the initial rush of acidity overwhelms the fruit, often the mark of a gastronomic wine, and a promise of balance. Later delivered in spades, drop-dead delicious with every drop, and perfectly balanced with a fatty cheese like Kunik. Last August I found the nose charming but the mouth a bit light, but last night (and in the Who Needs Tuscany or Piedmont tasting last week) this had filled out with sexy gravitas and become everything I'd want it to be. If neither Arianna nor I were married, I'd hop on the first boat.
 
A delicious wine. It's all gone down in these parts so I make do with the sp68. I've never had it without food. Sexy is interesting. I don't know that that's the word I would use, but the wine did have a real haunting quality to it, almost bordering on carnal, so I see where you're coming from.

I've met Arianna a couple of times. She's a lovely, charming woman to be sure, but all of this internet adoration is a bit much.
 
originally posted by VLM:

I've met Arianna a couple of times. She's a lovely, charming woman to be sure, but all of this internet adoration is a bit much.
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So I shouldn't wax rhapsodic about her "Pantarei" any more? boo hoo

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by VLM:

I've met Arianna a couple of times. She's a lovely, charming woman to be sure, but all of this internet adoration is a bit much.
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So I shouldn't wax rhapsodic about her "Pantarei" any more? boo hoo

Mark Lipton
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Honestly that stuff sounds really demeaning to me.
 
Great palates "taste" alike. I rarely buy a whole case of any particular wine but after tasting this one I didn't hesitate to make the purchase. JBL said it was a major YUM.
 
originally posted by VLM:

A delicious wine. It's all gone down in these parts so I make do with the sp68. I've never had it without food. Sexy is interesting. I don't know that that's the word I would use, but the wine did have a real haunting quality to it, almost bordering on carnal, so I see where you're coming from.

I've met Arianna a couple of times. She's a lovely, charming woman to be sure, but all of this internet adoration is a bit much.
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The SP68 is a bit much for me. Maybe with the right food -- maybe duck? I don't know. I haven't had the frappato yet.
 
I like the SP68, it has all this earthy, basalt-y, funky character, yet is at the same time light and elegant with berry and pomegranate flavors. Nero D'Avola and Frappato don't seem to blend so much as they layer over each other.
 
I think the reality is that we are talking about different bottlings of SP 68 2008 in the market.

There is what came originally and what has come more recently. They don't taste the same. I find the more recent shipment more approachable, but that's me.

This was all driven home to me recently by what you might call The Case of the Missing Label, wherein a bottle that I knew to be SP 68 '08 from the back label, bottle shape, capsule, as well as the case that it came in, sat in the work cellar for some time due to a missing front label, a circumstance that rendered it unsaleable. It had been in the cellar long enough that we had sold out of its SP 68 brethren and then got a new shipment in, from which we have been selling for awhile. So I went ahead and opened that unlabeled bottle for a wine pairing, and it was startling how different it was from what we currently sell. Both in terms of texture and acidity.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
I think the reality is that we are talking about different bottlings of SP 68 2008 in the market.

There is what came originally and what has come more recently. They don't taste the same. I find the more recent shipment more approachable, but that's me.

This was all driven home to me recently by what you might call The Case of the Missing Label, wherein a bottle that I knew to be SP 68 '08 from the back label, bottle shape, capsule, as well as the case that it came in, sat in the work cellar for some time due to a missing front label, a circumstance that rendered it unsaleable. It had been in the cellar long enough that we had sold out of its SP 68 brethren and then got a new shipment in, from which we have been selling for awhile. So I went ahead and opened that unlabeled bottle for a wine pairing, and it was startling how different it was from what we currently sell. Both in terms of texture and acidity.
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Interesting. Do you know for sure that there were two bottlings?

We got all of ours in one shot so it will all be the same thing.

Any indicator (Lot number?) on the bottles?
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
I think the reality is that we are talking about different bottlings of SP 68 2008 in the market.

There is what came originally and what has come more recently. They don't taste the same. I find the more recent shipment more approachable, but that's me.

This was all driven home to me recently by what you might call The Case of the Missing Label, wherein a bottle that I knew to be SP 68 '08 from the back label, bottle shape, capsule, as well as the case that it came in, sat in the work cellar for some time due to a missing front label, a circumstance that rendered it unsaleable. It had been in the cellar long enough that we had sold out of its SP 68 brethren and then got a new shipment in, from which we have been selling for awhile. So I went ahead and opened that unlabeled bottle for a wine pairing, and it was startling how different it was from what we currently sell. Both in terms of texture and acidity.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Do you know for sure that there were two bottlings?

We got all of ours in one shot so it will all be the same thing.

Any indicator (Lot number?) on the bottles?
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I don't know for sure at all, just that I taste a difference.

I will check on lot numbers.
 
Yah i just had the SP 68 the other day with some friends and it was a wonderful food pair. We tried it with several dishes including some sicilian inspired cod with capers and anchovies, braised quail in vinegar and paprika, and tripe. It liked all the dishes, especially all of them. This was a bottle from the 1st* shipment. I had another bottle from the same case a few weeks ago and it was wildy different, more lemony and acidic. This second bottle was softer and more defined. Bottle variation?, lunal cycle? sure. Lot# YUMM.
 
originally posted by The Wine Mule:
She's a biodynamic producer. Bottle variation is a given.
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This goes beyond bottle variation.

I have sold the wines of Occhipinti through multiple vintages and in what might be considered fairly large quantities. I am familiar with the normal run of bottle variation. This is something more. I noticed there was a change right away with the new bottles, but it was actually going back and tasting the "original issue" after getting a feel for the normal variation of the second release, as I described, that sealed the matter for me.

It is entirely common for small producers not to bottle a particular wine all at once. Thomas-Labaille and Christiano Guttarolo would be specfic examples, also from the LDM stable (and also producers whom I really admire), of producers without the capacity in the winery to bottle all in one go. There are multiple releases of wine with the same label. Before it is bottled the wine is sitting somewhere, in some sort of barrel, vat, anfora, or tank. It sees extra time in that vessel as opposed to the wine that has already been bottled. In the end result, there is usually some sort of taste difference.

The newer to the market, "second shipment" of SP 68 '08 seems more harmonious and knit together. That to me is something that is probably indicative of extra age before bottling.

It sounds to me from the descriptions of the SP 68 in this thread that folks are essentially talking about different wines, and there is a reason for that.
 
originally posted by Matteo Mollo:
Yah i just had the SP 68 the other day with some friends and it was a wonderful food pair. We tried it with several dishes including some sicilian inspired cod with capers and anchovies, braised quail in vinegar and paprika, and tripe. It liked all the dishes, especially all of them. This was a bottle from the 1st* shipment. I had another bottle from the same case a few weeks ago and it was wildy different, more lemony and acidic. This second bottle was softer and more defined. Bottle variation?, lunal cycle? sure. Lot# YUMM.
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The first shipment to Boston, or the first shipment to New York?

They might not be coequal.
 
The bottles I currently have of the SP 68 list "L0109" on the left side of the front label. Those bottles are from the second shipment. I no longer have bottles from the first shipment to look at regarding a label code.
 
Tonight I espied bottles of L0109 on the shelf at Arlequin.

At home I have one bottle purchased in August at Terroir, from perhaps the first batch that came out west. It is also L0109.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
SP 68 label codeThe bottles I currently have of the SP 68 list "L0109" on the left side of the front label. Those bottles are from the second shipment. I no longer have bottles from the first shipment to look at regarding a label code.
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I'll check the NC batch over the weekend and report back.
 
originally posted by slaton:
Tonight I espied bottles of L0109 on the shelf at Arlequin.

At home I have one bottle purchased in August at Terroir, from perhaps the first batch that came out west. It is also L0109.
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Nobody asked you, slayer.
 
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