Arianna Occhipinti SP68 Bianco 2020

One more fantastic bottle. Beautiful, delicious and quite sophisticated. A mix of herbs, citrus, and tea with a bit of VA. Round, well-balanced, salty and zappy. Shame it was the last bottle from my stash.

SP68 is the name of the road that cuts through Arianna's original vineyard in Vittoria. This road has existed for hundreds of years already. And the wine acquired this name because Arianna sees wine as a journey.

It's a 60/40 blend of Zibibbo and Albanello. The 15 years old vines grow on medium-density red sands and chalk from sub-Apennine limestone rocks at 280 meters above sea level. The fruit is destemmed and co-fermented with native yeasts in concrete vats and with 15-day-long skin maceration. Then the wine is aged in concrete vats for six months and bottled unfiltered.

After checking my tasting notes, I can state that SP68 Bianco is unstable. Also, it's funny to witness a tight fight between Albanello and Zibibbo in each bottle.

Luckily for us, this bottle was gorgeous. Not overly complex, but beautiful. Oregano, mandarine, peach-flavoured ice tea and dried herbs. Round, well-balanced and relatively elegant despite apparent skin-contact influence on the palate. Salty, fresh and delicious.

More reductive than the previous bottle. Zibibbo-driven bouquet: yellow apple, dried herbs, not very fresh water, and honey. It is well balanced but IMO lacks freshness.

I like how this bottle develops. Less reductive, more round and delicious. Dried herbs, honey, mandarin, orange peel peach, and yellow apple. I would love to taste it in a few years.

Expressive and slightly reductive bouquet. Honey, pear, mandarin, peach. Good acidity, a little bit too sweet. Long aftertaste, but not persistent. Has less energy than previous vintage. So drink now.

New release, so I could not pass by. Multiple times. Not that stressed as I would expect it to be. Chamomile, orange zest, quince and slight amber hints. Well balanced, has volume, but quite skin-deep. Will definitely taste again to see how it develops (alright, just to drink and enjoy it again). But IMHO it has potential to get better.

SP68 Bianco

Tasting Notes(6)

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