SULCIS, SARDINIA
Sardinia’s trendy calling card variety is currently Vermentino – its crunchy, vibrant wines with green-apple and lime flavours make it Italy’s answer to Sauvignon Blanc, and probably the best known and most popular Sardinian wine. But perhaps Sardinia’s best-kept vinous secret is Carignano, a characterful, distinctive, terroir-driven black variety that achieves its best expression on the sandy southwestern tip of this large Mediterranean island, in an area known as Sulcis.
It was probably the Phoenicians, founders of the ancient Sulci on the neighbouring island of Sant’Antioco, who first brought vines to Sardinia. Ampelographers believe that Carignano originated in Cariñena in Spain’s Aragón region, where it is also known as Mazuelo, or in Catalonia as Samsó.
