Sardinia

Sardinia, the Sardinians say, is a continent of its own.
For those looking over at the 24,000-square-kilometre island from the mainland, that may sound wildly exaggerated. But once you arrive there, the idea begins to make a certain sense. This perception was probably even more pronounced a few decades ago (and certainly centuries ago), when—far from the mainland and television—people in large parts of the island spoke Sardinian among themselves, and otherwise communicated in dialects that often carried more French than Italian overtones.

Sardinia’s geographical position in the middle of the Mediterranean and the island’s topography meant that many regions were only rarely exposed to outside influences. Yet once a certain habitus or tradition established itself, it endured, was cultivated further, and eventually became part of Sardinian identity. Culinarily, this is reflected in a completely distinct food culture which, although it occasionally overlaps with Italian cuisine, has mostly followed its own path.

Wine has been made in Sardinia for around 3,000 years—longer than anywhere else in what is now Italy. The Phoenicians were most likely the first responsible for this; they not only founded Cagliari but also planted a few vines in the island’s soils. If these vines were indeed Nuragus and Malvasia—as not only ardent Sardinians but also serious ampelographers claim—then these two varieties, still cultivated today, would be among the oldest in the world. Etruscans, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Spaniards continued the tradition of viticulture and helped create the island’s broad and now entirely distinctive diversity of grape varieties. The Spaniards, for example, introduced Monica, locally also called Mora di Spagna, today the island’s third most important variety in terms of quantity. Above all, however, they brought Cannonau, internationally better known as Grenache or Garnacha. Cannonau likely arrived in Sardinia after the conquest of Alghero in 1354 by Peter IV of Aragon. Over the centuries it gradually began its triumphal march across the island; today, 7,700 hectares of vineyards bear witness to this success.

Gallura and Vermentino

Viticulture takes place across the entire island. Nearly 70 percent of it focuses on red grape varieties; only in Gallura, located north of Olbia, does a white variety reign: Vermentino. It, too, did not originally come from the island but migrated to Sardinia either from Spain or from the Ligurian–Tuscan coast—the exact origin remains uncertain.

What is certain, however, is that the variety feels exceptionally at home in soils shaped by weathered granite. The climate also seems ideal: in summer it is swelteringly hot and bone-dry during the day, although the extreme conditions are occasionally broken by strong northeasterly winds. Moreover, the presence of the sea is always felt to some degree. All of these factors leave their mark on the wines, which sensorially tend to place Mediterranean herbs at the center. Their structure is usually supple and rounded, with a substantial body.