Everything from natural legend COS is, in a word, irresistible—but on a day with our first heat advisory heading into summer, there's nothing more welcome than a brand new cuvée of Rosato.

We've seen Giusto Occhipinti's hand at rosé in Spumante format, but still Rosato is (surprisingly) a first here. With just a few hours of skin contact in the press, this is his estate-grown, organic Nero d'Avola from Vittoria, where red clay and limestone soils famously bring lip-smacking freshness to the wine. 7 months in large concrete keep the theme: taut and Mediterranean, packed with red citrus, savory herbs, island breeze.

For the uninitiated, a touch more on COS below.

Over four decades ago, Giusto Occhipinti (along with his friends Giambattista Cilia and Cirino Strano) set a completely new standard for Sicilian wine. What may feel like the norm for quality production now—indigenous varietals farmed organically, with nods to ancient methods like the use of amphora, native fermentations, and maceration of white grapes—was just emerging, with Giusto leading the island's natural wine transformation.

The work is now synonymous with Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG: deeply gastronomic renditions of Frappato and Nero d'Avola, marked by the appellation's cherry-scented, savory aromatic signature. COS is perhaps just as well known for texturally dense, macerated Grecanico (the local Garganega clone!), work that helped usher "orange" winemaking into the conversation of serious, terroir-driven wine.

Importantly, this was all happening in Vittoria, on Sicily's further-flung southeast end where deep limestone cuts a massive counterpoint to the looming volcanic influence of Etna:

Stunning limestone cloaked in about a foot of red clay. Photos via @aziendaagricolacos

Echoing the contrada-specific work further north, Giusto also started to bottle by vineyard—a revolutionary exploration of the area's terroir, and a legacy that carries through in his niece Arianna Occhipinti's (now, very sought-after) single parcel bottlings of Frappato.

SHOP COS