Sicily, Italy: Azienda Agricola COS

Three friends founded Azienda Agricola COS, in 1980: Giambattista Cilia, Cirino Strano and Giusto Occhipinti. The acronym of their last names is where the name for the winery – COS – comes from. For the past 30 years, we have been creating our history and putting it into every glass of our wine, our story, the story of our ancestral lands. The Azienda Agricola COS works with biodynamic principals of agriculture, a method that is based on the philosopher Rudolf Steiner’s teachings. These teachings incorporate the ideas of organic agriculture while at the same time they use a holistic approach that considers the earth and the vine to be part of wine system that develops together. With this philosophy in mind, the COS winery works using our ancient traditional techniques to cultivate our vines. We think of ourselves as being the head of the family that looks after our vines, including pruning in a ways that is best for both the vine and the grapes. Biodynamic agricultural farming means respect for what nature offers and not looking to ask for more than what is available. For this reason as well we have a project to use the water from our winery and to compost the material we have from pruning. Our compost uses neither chemicals nor artificial ingredients. For us, the choice to follow biodynamic principles isn’t because its trendy or fashionable but rather it flows from our respect for nature and for the passion we have for our work and our love of the vine.