Giro di Cagliari DOC is a red wine made on Sardinia from the Giro grape. This was brought to Sardinia from Spain in around 1400, a worthy but unproductive and now rare variety used for vaguely port-like reds under Girò di Cagliari DOC,’ says Burton Anderson (1990, p.288). It is grown mainly in the province of Cagliari, plus several townships (‘comuni’) in Oristano province on the Italian island of Sardinia (Sardegna’). See Sardinia south, Cagliari’s Campidano and Sulcis. The DOC was granted in 1972. The wine is ‘a light but worthy stand-in for Port in danger of extinction,’ (Burton Anderson, 1990, p294). Dolce naturale is a sweet style from possiblt dried or semi-dried grapes. Secco is slightly sweeter than the ‘dolce naturale’. Liquoroso is also sweet but fortified and also comes in ‘riserva’ form.

Bibliography

Burton Anderson, The Wine Atlas of Italy (Mitchell Beazley, London, 1990).

David Gleave, The Wines of Italy (Salamander Books, London, 1989).

Dr Ian D’Agata, Native Wine Grapes of Italy (University of California Press, 2014).

Nicolas Belfrage MW, Life Beyond Lambrusco (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985). 

Nicolas Belfrage MW, From Barolo to Valpolicella—The Wines of Northern Italy (Faber & Faber, 1999).

Nicolas Belfrage MW, From Brunello to Zibibbo–The Wines of Tuscany, Central and Southern Italy (2nd edition, London, 2003).

Oxford Companion to Wine 4th edition ed. Jancis Robinson MW and Julia Harding MW (Oxford University Press, 2015).