A Note from Sergio
When you go from town to town in Italy, you notice one thing very quickly: everything changes. The towns change, and as they do, the people change, the dialect changes, the food changes, the culture changes. Italy is like a kaleidoscope; everything is constantly transforming before your eyes.
This continual shifting is both the beauty of Italy and the beauty of Italian wines. No matter where you go in Italy, no matter what you drink when you get there, it's going to be different from-and still just as delightful as-where you were and what you drank the day before, or the day before that. Some of this polymorphic beauty of Italy comes from the country's wide range of climates; the rest of it stems from the country's highly divisive history, a history comprised of feuding principalities, one glorious conquering empire, and a long record of being conquered itself.
Nowhere in Italy is this intertwining of history and change quite so evident as in its two major islands, Sicilia and Sardegna. Unfairly relegated to the status of redheaded stepchildren, both Sicilia and Sardegna are often overlooked by tourists and wine connoisseurs alike. This oversight is just a shame, for both of these Mediterranean islands can stand up to their better-known Italian siblings like Tuscany and Lombardy.
Sitting pretty in the center of Mediterranean trade routes, Sicilia and Sardegna have a long and complicated history-Greeks, Byzantines, Goths, Spaniards, French, British-they've been conquered aplenty. But beyond their hotly contested political ground, both islands have a rich history when it comes to wine. As early as 500 BC, Spartan, Athenian, Phoenician and Egyptian traders crossed oceans to Sicilia in order to drink, buy, and import its wine.
The long hand of wines from Sardegna reaches, if possible, even further than that of neighboring Sicilia. The smaller and more remote of these two islands, Sardegna has maintained a distinct culture from not only Sicilia but also from Italy. Perhaps nothing illustrates the uniqueness of Sardegna as much as its indigenous Cannonau grape that DNA testing has suggested might just be the oldest grape varietal in the world. The Cannonau isn't merely a very old grape; it's also the healthiest one for you. Maybe that's why the people of Sardegna are among the longest-living folks in the world. And, for what it's worth, it also makes a delicious wine.
Most people who visit Italy go to the hot spots: Rome, Venice, Florence, or Toscana. Most people take the beaten path. But when they do, they miss much of the strange and rich beauty that is Italy. The wines that I'm bringing you today are from Sardegna's Attilio Contini and they very much embody the road less traveled. They are, no question, very different. But to my mind, difference is good; difference is beauty; difference is Italy.
Open a bottle of the Contini Barrile with someone who finds beauty off the beaten path. You'll share something wonderful and strange.
My Best,
P.S. You can now follow me on Twitter: @iwmse.
Featured Wines
Contini
Barrile 2001 $66.83
Let's just put the cards on the table: this is one devastatingly sexy wine. For its Barrile bottling, Contini goes outside Sardegna's main red varietal trio-Cannonau, Monica, and Carignano-to work with Nieddera, one of the island's more obscure inhabitants, and one that Contini rescued from extinction. Ruby red, rich with currants, spice and licorice, the color and the nose of this wine will seduce you, but the palate that's at once savory and laden with ripe black fruit will make you weak in the knees. If you've ever desired a night of passion with a beautiful stranger, this is your wine. Drinking now through 2015.
Contini
Barrile 2003 $63.46
The 2003 Barrile has all the dark beauty of the 2001, but it also has a slightly sweeter disposition. If the 2001 will love you and leave you breathless, the 2003 will also buy you breakfast in the morning. Ripe plummy fruit greets you, spices invite you in, and a fabulously long finish gives you a warm good-bye. Balanced and beautiful, this is one Sardinian beauty you could take home to mom's cellar. Drinking now through 2018.
Featured Everyday Values
COS
Pojo di Lupo 2008 $35.07
There's nothing like an indigenous grape crafted with love, and the Cos Pojo di Lupo is just that. Nero d'Avola makes a deep purple wine, a hefty masculine wine that glints with dark cherry, and the Pojo di Lupo turns that wine into something magical and complex. Fruity, funky, and earthy, the Pojo di Lupo has balance that will surprise you. A different wine for people who appreciate the wild, the wooly and the wonderful.
Pietra di Tommasone
Biancollella Bianco 2008 $15.03
This white from Campania shows the silky lines of a beachy bathing beauty. Refreshing, light, glowing with white fruits like apricots and peaches, the Biancollella has a zing of acidity and an undercurrent of salinity that's like kissing the shoulder of a sun-drenched Esther Williams. Drinking now and a phenomenal value. |
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