Winemaker Notes
Vermentino often shows the fragrance of macchia, the mix of evergreen shrubs and herbs that typifies the Sardinian landscape. Costamolino hints at aromas of pine and mint coupled with ripe stone fruit and sweet citrus. The palate is at once vibrant and textural and finishes with lingering acidity.
Costamolino is produced with the Mediterranean table in mind. The wine’s lemony acidity will accent rock lobster or squid but carries enough weight to work with spaghetti topped with bottarga or a bowl of brothy clams and fregola. Vermentino’s herbal flavor can also highlight vegetables such as fava beans or fennel.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
White peach and pink grapefruit soar off the nose of this wine. Almond skin and almond flowers offer alternating savory and floral aromas. The palate tastes like a perfectly balanced breakfast of toast, green juice and half a pink grapefruit with a sprinkle of sugar.
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Wine Spectator
A tangy white, light- to medium-bodied, with a pleasing plumpness to flavors of poached apricot, raspberry, wild thyme and orange curd. Offers citrus zest and sea salt notes that crackle on the finish.
A fantastic, aromatic white grape that grows with great success in Sardinia, Tuscany and in lesser proportions on the island of Corsica. Somm Secret—Vermentino is thought to be genetically identical to Liguria’s Pigato grape and Peidmont’s Favorita. It comprises a large proportion of the whites in southern France where it is called Rolle.
Hailed for centuries as a Mediterranean vine-growing paradise, multiple cultures over many centuries have ruled the large island of Sardinia. Set in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Phonoecians, Ancient Rome, and subsequently the Byzantines, Arabs and Catalans have all staked a claim on the island at some point in history. Along the way, these inhabitants transported many of their homeland’s prized vines and today Sardinia’s modern-day indigenous grape varieties claim multiple origins. Sardinia’s most important red grapes—namely Cannonau (a synonym for Grenache) and Carignan—are actually of Spanish origin.
Vermentino, a prolific Mediterranean variety, is the island’s star white. Vermentino has a stronghold the Languedoc region of France as well as Italy’s western and coastal regions, namely Liguria (where it is called Pigato), Piedmont (where it is called Favorita) and in Tuscany, where it goes by the name, Vermentino. The best Vermentino, in arguably all of the Mediterranean, grows in Sardinia's northeastern region of Gallura where its vines struggle to dig roots deep down into north-facing slopes of granitic soils. These Vermentino vines produce highly aromatic, full and concentrated whites of unparalleled balance.
Today aside from its dedication to viticulture, Sardinia remains committed to maintaining its natural farmlands, bucolic plains of grazing sheep and perhaps most of all, its sandy, sunny, Mediterranean beaches.