Sardinia

Sardinia (it. Sardegna) is the second largest island in the Mediterranean sea, almost three times larger than the neighboring French Corsica and only a little less than Sicily.

From the mid-18th century Sardinia is one of the five Autonomous regions of Italy, along with the regions of Sicily, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino Alto Adige and Valle d’aosta (Valley of Aosta). However, its remoteness from the mainland territories led to the formation of cultural identity, different from the Italian mainstream. Including in the production of wine.

In Sardinia, the wine is historically not so much woven into the culture, on mainland Italy. In fact, significant volumes of production and consumption of wine has evolved here in the last few centuries.

The love of Italians to the bureaucracy in Sardinia visible to the naked eye. There are more zones of DOC and IGT than Calabria and Basilicata combined, although the production of wine per hectare is the lowest among the Italian regions.

Wine in Sardinia is not particularly popular as a business, despite the generous subsidies of the government. Only a small percentage of island land set aside for vineyards, and seems to be little eagerness to benefit from clearly favourable to the wine climate and landscape of the island.

Fortunately, there are manufacturers producing high-end wines, which are gradually becoming noticeable in foreign markets.

Grapes

Over the centuries Sardinia belonged to that one other country that is very evident in the local architecture, language and place names. And of course, on varietal diversity of Sardinian wine.

Set in the Sardinian varieties the vineyards are a little similar to other Italian regions.

Coming to Sardinia’s mainland territories – the Tuscany and Lazio. But there are popular varieties (Sangiovese, Montepulciano, Barbera, Trebbiano) are rare in the vineyards of the island.

But it is easy to find a selection of Spanish and French origin. In particular, Grenache (under the local name Cannonau), Carignan (and its significantly different clones Bovale di Spagna and Bovale Grande), Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Italian varieties in Sardinia is Malvasia and Vermentino. But to call Vermentino Italian only formally: it is much more common in Corsica and southern France (often under the name Rolle) than at home – Liguria.

Muscat Blanc (Moscato Bianco) – all-pervasive in the Mediterranean – adds pan-Mediterranean character of the Sardinian winemaking.

In addition to these well known varieties on the island use a variety of vanishingly rare: torbat (Torbato), semidano (Semidano), Nedera (Niederra), nuragus (Nuragus), Monica (Monica) and Nasco (Nasco). The last three are awarded their own appellations (DOC), in Cagliari (Cagliari).

The appellations and zones of production

Most of the vineyards of Sardinia, located in the Western part. Along it, from South to North, lined up the most geographically due to the appellations on the island: Carignano del Sulcis (Carignano del Sulcis), Vernaccia di Oristano (Vernaccia di Oristano), Malvasia di Bosa (Bosa Malvasia di) and Alghero (Alghero). Even the major of Cagliari DOC, which occupies a significant area of the South island, notably close to the Western edge.

This campaign falls Vermentino di Gallura (Vermentino di Gallura), the only in Sardinia DOCG appellation in the North-East of the island.
However, the most famous lovers of Sardinian wine, Cannonau di Sardegna (Cannonau di Sardegna) and Vermentino di Sardegna (Vermentino di Sardegna) is the appellations, which are scattered throughout the island.

The label of the wine Cannonau di Sardegna

The terroir of the island offers great potential for the development of winemaking. The combination of hills and plains, coastal and inland areas creates a very valuable variety of mesoclimates.

These benefits are complemented by a variety of soils from limestone to granite and mineral-rich clay and vysokogornyh sand and gravel soils.

The island lies on the southern edge of European viniculture, but thanks to the cooling effect of the Mediterranean, oceanic local climate is more gentle to the vines than in other regions at these latitudes (e.g. Greece or Turkey)

Find wine of Sardinia its place in the vast global world of wine, depends on a number of factors: fluctuations in world wine markets, the efficiency of the Italian bureaucracy, the success of marketing and the changing preferences of today’s consumers.