Winemaker Notes
Deep ruby red, light garnet tinges. Nose: Rare, complex notes: plums and blueberries, sweet spices, bay, juniper, tobacco and chocolate. Palate: rich, warm, mellow, fruity and spicy notes, suave tannins.
Excellent with roasted or grilled meat and game, aromatic and spiced dishes, medium to long seasoned cheese.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Enveloping, elderberry and damson nose that has no hint of exaggeration of any kind. With aeration, some meaty character develops. Great concentration and a super tannin structure that gives this a plush feel through the long, slightly warm finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Always a formidable wine, the 2014 Carignano del Sulcis Superiore Terre Brune shows its pride and pedigree despite the difficulties you might associate with this vintage (especially with mainland wines, but less so with island wines). This wine represents a historic blend of 95% Carignano del Sulcis and 5% Bovaleddu grapes for good measure. Bovaleddu is another name for Bovale, and the variety comes in two clones: one with large berries and one with tight, smaller berries. This wine immediately paints a Sardinian landscape for you, with aromas that recall the native myrtle (mirto) plants that grow freely on the island and softer tones of scorched island earth and even a veiling of sea salt that reminds you of its littoral Mediterranean identity. The wine spends 20 long months in new oak. Some 100,000 bottles were made. This expression offers an elegant, full-weight approach with a slightly shorter and thinner finish in this cool and soggy vintage. It should be interesting to see how the wine fleshes out with more bottle aging.
Responsible for some of the most stunning old vine red wine on the planet, Carignan has an amazing capacity to survive dry, arid climates and still produce lovely, mouthwatering wine. In Spain it goes by the name of Mazuelo or Cariñena and while it may have originated there in the province of Aragón, its popularity lies elsewhere, particularly in Languedoc-Roussillon. Somm Secret—Historically Carignan did not enjoy the respect that it does today. In the mid 20th century, Carignan covered nearly 140,000 ha in Algeria, where it was made into low quality bulk and blending wine to supply mass-market demand.
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.