Sardinia is an island in the Mediterranean, and although it belongs to Italy, it has a wine culture entirely its own. It is around eight hours by express ferry from the Italian mainland, and that distance is felt both in the landscape and in the wines. The climate is distinctly Mediterranean with intense heat and light, and the island is struck by the scirocco wind that blows in from North Africa. If you want to understand Sardinian wine, it helps to know the terrain: mountainous inland areas such as Barbagia and Gennargentu, coastal lowland plains such as Campidano, and a soil that ranges from granite and clay to volcanic material and sand.
The wine history goes far back. The Phoenicians brought viticulture to the island in antiquity, and Spanish rule under the Aragon dynasty from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century left clear marks on both dialect and wine style. Up until the 1950s, cultivation was largely based on small-scale farming, and only from the 1970s did the island truly move from bulk wine (vino da taglio) to bottled wines. The cooperatives played a central role in this modernisation from the mid-1980s.
Among the white grapes, vermentino stands strongest. It thrives in the dry, well-ventilated climate and is most expressive on lean soils that keep the growth in check, ideally in cooler microclimates with a large difference between day and night temperatures. In Gallura in the north-eastern corner, where granite soil and thin sandy topsoil shape the cork oak landscape, the grape is grown in high-altitude vineyards. Alongside vermentino you will also find nuragus, torbato and vernaccia.
On the red side, cannonau is the island's hallmark. The grape is the same as Spain's garnacha and France's grenache and, according to tradition, was brought to the island under the Aragon dynasty. Carignano is the Italian name for carignan, which you also know from Spain and France, while monica adds yet another local voice to the palette.
Sardinia has seen less wine investment than Sicily and remains sparsely populated, and that is precisely what makes the island interesting. Here you encounter wines that carry the mark of the macchia vegetation's wild sage, mint, fennel and myrtle, and of a landscape that has kept its own rhythm.