Details: Join the incredible team at Central Provisions for a highly exclusive (only 20 seats!), four-course wine luncheon featuring the wines of Arianna Occhipinti, each paired with delicious food from acclaimed Chef Chris Gould and his culinary team. Winemaker Arianna Occhipinti’s name graces just about every women winemaker list in the world. She began her foray into wine at the age of 16 with an introduction by her uncle Giusto Occhipinti, whose COS wines are undisputedly amongst the best of Sicily. Over the years she has climbed to stratospheric fame. Her wines are made with a focus on a quality expression of the terroir of each vineyard made in small lots, making them difficult to come by but highly sought after. Wine Director Victoria Barthelmes will guide you through each incredible wine pour.  

WINES:  

• 2021 Occhipinti, SP68 Bianco, Terre Siciliane (60% Zibibbo,40% Albanello)
  From certified organic vines, averaging more than 20 years old and planted on chalky, sandy soils. The bunches are harvested by hand, destemmed, and co-fermented spontaneously with native yeasts in concrete tanks. Maceration lasts approximately two weeks. The wine is aged in concrete tanks for six months and bottled unfiltered. 

• 2020 Occhipinti, Vino di Contrada BB Bombolieri, Terre Siciliane (100% Frappato)
  This wine shows a slightly more saturated hue with dark fruit flavors of black cherry and fresh plum. I like the impeccable balance of the BB (from the Contrada Bombolieri with sandy soils and stones), which is more accessible and primary next to the Contrada PT and without the earthy overtones you get in the Contrada FL. Sulfur use is minimal. 

• 2020 Occhipinti, Vino di Contrada PT Pettineo, Terre Siciliane (100% Frappato)
  A few miles away from Bombolieri and Fossa di Lupo, the  0.9-hectare “Pettineo” plot features the oldest Frappato vines (60 years) in Vittoria. They grow on 25 inches of fine orange sand over tufa (a porous limestone) and are a mix of alberello and guyot training. This site is the first of the three to be harvested. Arianna finds a forward fruitiness and fine, smooth tannins in this wine, loaded with flavors of sweet and sour cherries, orange peel, ash, and tobacco. With regards to Arianna’s other two single-vineyard Frappatos, PT is the most juicy, bright, and fruit-driven.

• 2020 Occhipinti, Siccagno, Sicilia DOC (100% Nero d'Avola)
  From multiple, certified organic parcels with vines averaging 35 years old, planted on red-sandy, limestone soils and trained in alberello and guyot. The bunches are hand-harvested and destemmed with the berries left whole. Fermentation is spontaneous with native yeasts in 20-hectoliter concrete tanks and with approximately 30 days of maceration and only gentle extraction. The wine is aged for 22 months in 25-hectoliter Slavonian oak barrels and is bottled without fining or filtration. Sulfur use is minimal. "Siccagno" is the local dialect for "totally dry.” Chili pepper, wet tobacco, and black cherries collide on the nose while the palate can be characterized by dark licorice, tart dark cherry, ashy charcoal, and fresh potting soil.

TICKETS: 20 tickets available

PRICE: $200 per person (plus tip and service)

LINK: Central Provisions

Portland Wine Week is Presented by Wine Wise with Partner Sponsors Bangor Savings and Buoy Local.

Chef Chris Gould began his culinary career at the age of 15 as a summer dishwasher and prep cook at the Bethel Inn in Bethel, Maine. He spent the following summer on the line working sauté and then enrolled in The Balsams’ accredited American Culinary Foundation apprenticeship program where he trained under several Certified Master Chefs and Bakers such as Chef Roland Henin, Chef Phil Learned, and Chef Steve James. After graduating from The Balsams in 2006, Chris landed in Boston working at Clio Restaurant as a Garde Manager cook; within a year he was chef tournant, also taking on the position of sashimi assistant at Uni. In 2009, he was the opening sous chef at Chefs Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette's Coppa Enoteca. Later that year, Chef Oringer asked Chris to return to Uni as his chef de cuisine, where he spent the next three years. He met his future wife and business partner, Paige Gould at Clio and in October 2012, the two moved to Portland, Maine. Chris and Paige spent two years making Central Provisions a reality, and in February 2014, they opened the doors to national acclaim, including a nomination for Best New Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation. Three years later, they opened Tipo restaurant, specializing in Neapolitan pizzas, pasta, and small plates.

Sommelier Victoria Barthelmes curates the wine program at Central Provisions and Tipo Restaurant. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, she focused the beginning of her career in New York City at Lincoln Ristorante under Chef Richard Capizzi and Johnathan Beno. While at Lincoln, Victoria was an integral part of the team that also produced the pastry program offered at the Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, and elaborate wedding cakes for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Upon moving to Maine in 2015, she began purchasing wine as a General Manager for a cafe and market in Cape Elizabeth. When she joined the team at Tipo, she worked her way up to General Manager and eventually took over the wine director role for both of the Goulds’ restaurants. She earned her first-level degree with the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2023.