Exploring Italy’s best Kept Secret: Sardinia
“…Many Sardinian vineyards are tiny, almost hidden, especially up in the highest hills, around Nuoro and Oliena. Their fascinating wines deserve to be better known.”
(Andrew Jefford, Decanter)
"Every wine region holds a surprise and for me Sardinia’s surprise wine is its Carignano di Sulcis DOC — Carignan grapes grown on sandy soils on the island’s south-west coast. The best of these wines are simply fantastic, with impressive body, balance, and flavor.”
(Mike Veseth, The Wine Economist)
Hosted by Brendan Jansen MW
Taste through 15 Sardinian wines with your host, and Master of Wine, Brendan Jansen.
Monday 9 June
Session 5: Sardinia
Hosted By Brendan Jansen MW
Masterclass: 6.00-8pm 15 Wines with Canapes, $115
(Only 14 seats available - private dining room event)
Decanter’s Andrew Jefford discovers four reasons (or more) to take Sardinia more seriously...
This is the Mediterranean’s second largest island – pipped only by a Sicilian whisker; its southerly neighbour is just six per cent bigger. In terms of wine production, though, Sardinia is only Italy’s fourteenth largest region (Sicily, for example, produces six times as much wine). Many Sardinian vineyards are tiny, almost hidden, especially up in the highest hills, around Nuoro and Oliena. Their fascinating wines deserve to be better known.
Let me give you four reasons why. The first is Vermentino: maybe the world’s best? That’s a question which merits a separate answer – which I’ll try to provide in a later blog.
The second reason is Carignano. Italy in general grows much less of this variety than does France (Carignan) or Spain (Mazuelo, Cariñena, Samsó), but I suspect that many Languedocien wine growers, at any rate, would be shocked to discover the rich textures and flavours which this variety can acquire in Sardinia. Carignan is often a piercing alto in Languedoc, and best blended; in Sardinia it can be warm and comforting bass, and works well on its own. Never better than in the sandy soils of Sulcis, in the island’s southwest, and especially on the large island of Sant’Antioco (Italy’s fourth largest in its own right), connected to the Sardinian mainland by a bridge. The soils in Sulcis are so sandy, in fact, that much Carignano de Sulcis is ungrafted. I’d be surprised if Sardinian Carignano didn’t feature somewhere in the top twenty of any serious competitive blind tasting of this variety.
The third reason is Cannonau. Once again, Italian plantings of this variety are dwarfed by Spain’s Garnacha stocks and France’s walletful of Grenache – but Sardinia’s efforts with the variety are of compelling interest, and comprise the island’s ‘noblest’ reds. The variety is grown in a number of different locations and different soils, but the best for me came from the granite uplands around Nuoro, and particularly the lonely village of Mamoiada.
Up here, at between 600 m to 800 m, the variety sheds its lowland sweetness and takes on an airy freshness and stony purity. This is not, though, the kind of mountain Grenache which tiptoes gracefully into Pinot territory. It remains strong, masterful and firmly structured, with often hugely impressive tannins. Cannonau, in other words, can be a wine of unusual completeness and authority for this variety.
And the fourth reason? That would be Sardinia’s own indigenous varieties (it claims up to 150) and specialities (including both sweet, dry and botrytised Malvasia di Bosa; as well as the complex, flor-affected Vernaccia di Oristano). Genetic intricacy is always of interest for its own sake, and I enjoyed the examples I tried of these rare varieties, often salvaged with great efforts (including the white Arvisionadu, Alvarega, Nasco and Semidano and the red Monica, Muristellu, Bovaluddu, Bovale Grande, Bovale Mannu, Bovale Sardo, Barbera Sarda and Cagnulari), even if some were, in the vinifications I tried, only shyly characterful.
At least I thought that the twelve just mentioned were all indigenous — but a little research after I got home in Robinson, Harding and Vouillamoz’s Wine Grapes suggested that Bovale Mannu and Bovale Grande are in fact the same as Carignano, while Muristellu, Bovaleddu, Bovale Sardo and Cagnulari are identical to Graciano. Some of this is contested on the island, where Dr Gianni Lovicu, one of the island’s leading viticultural researchers, says that Bovale Mannu is in fact another synonym for Graciano, while Muristellu and Bovaleddu are not in fact Graciano but a different variety altogether.
Whatever the truth, Cagnulari certainly seemed to make the most interesting wines after Vermentino, Carignano and Cannonau – in a rather less stern and more voluptuous guise than Graciano can often assume, for example, in Rioja.
Canny readers will have noted just how much vine material Sardinia seems to share with Spain, and this is usually attributed to a long period of Aragonese rule in Sardinia (between the arrival of the Catalan army under Crown Prince Alfonso of Aragon in 1324 and the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713). Catalan is still spoken in the northwestern Sardinian port of Alghero. The Sardinians themselves, though, point out that the trading Phoenicians may have been moving these grape varieties around before the Aragonese ever arrived – and they would dearly love to prove that Cannonau is in fact an indigenous variety which the Aragonese took back to Spain. There is, for the time being, no comprehensive genetic proof of this – though some 2010 research by Manna Crespan and others claimed that Cannonau is more genetically diverse than Spanish Grenache, suggesting possible anteriority. Other researchers cited by the Wine Grapes authors, though, have found the opposite. The question will be tussled over for a while yet.
Anything else? I haven’t mentioned the usual plethora of DO and IGT names since the island’s leading wines usually contain the variety name in the DO or IGT formula. You might be foxed, though, by the critically important, pan-Sardinian IGT ‘Isola dei Nuraghi’ — since no such island can be found in any atlas. It’s a cultural reference to the mysterious towers called Nuraghe which dot Sardinia, and which date back to 730 BCE to 1900 BCE. The problem, apparently, was that since ‘Sardegna’ already featured in a number of DOC formulae, it couldn’t be used for an IGT. Though why not? Using it on its own, perhaps, would have been more helpful to consumers than sending them scurrying off for an island which doesn’t exist.The second reason is Carignano. Italy in general grows much less of this variety than does France (Carignan) or Spain (Mazuelo, Cariñena, Samsó), but I suspect that many Languedocien wine growers, at any rate, would be shocked to discover the rich textures and flavours which this variety can acquire in Sardinia. Carignan is often a piercing alto in Languedoc, and best blended; in Sardinia it can be warm and comforting bass, and works well on its own. Never better than in the sandy soils of Sulcis, in the island’s southwest, and especially on the large island of Sant’Antioco (Italy’s fourth largest in its own right), connected to the Sardinian mainland by a bridge. The soils in Sulcis are so sandy, in fact, that much Carignano de Sulcis is ungrafted. I’d be surprised if Sardinian Carignano didn’t feature somewhere in the top twenty of any serious competitive blind tasting of this variety.
Meet the host…
Master of Wine: Brendan Jansen
Brendan Jansen MW is a specialist medical practitioner, and the development of his expertise in wine began with his involvement in tasting groups with colleagues. His love affair with wine was cemented when he lived in Italy for two years, during which time he developed an affinity for, and in-depth knowledge of, Italian wines. Brendan's passion is for wine education and appreciation, and this has inspired his MW journey. Tastings led by Brendan are fun and informative and involve a deeper exploration of the varieties and regions covered.
The Master of Wine qualification indicates that the title recipient has completed the toughest series of examinations on viticulture, wine making styles and techniques, all wine regions, and all pluses and minuses in the marketing of these wines on planet. Then added to this is the requirement for an extraordinary ability to discern the bouquet & flavour nuances caused by the factors above which indicate the wine’s variety, age, wine making techniques used, regions, quality, hygiene and seasonal variations.
The title MW is the greatest imprimatur or recognition that the wine world can give to its most able students. After 50 years of Master of Wine graduates there are just 2 in Western Australia and perhaps 24 in Australia.
The Wine List
First bracket
2021 Pala Stellato Vermentino di Sardegna
2022 Antonella Corda Vermentino
2023 Mora and Memo Tino Vermentino
Second Bracket
2021 Sa Raja Vermentino di Gallura Superiore Kramori
2022 Capichera Isola dei Nuraghi Vermentino
2018/2019 Antonella Corda Ziru Bianco
Third Bracket
2022 Cantina del Vermentino Monti ‘Kiri’ Cannonau
2022 Antonella Corda Cannonau
2019 Pala Cannonau Riserva
2022 Sa Raja Cannonau di Sardegna Inkibi
2019 Antonella Corda Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva
Fourth Bracket
2018 Sardus Pater Arenas Carignano del Sulcis Riserva
2018 Santadi Rocca Rubia Carignano del Sulcis Riserva
2015 Cantina del Vermentino Monti ‘Super Sardinian’ Galana
2016 Capichera Assajé Isola dei Nuraghi Syrah