Vermentino di Gallura DOCG

Vermentino di Gallura DOCG is a dry white wine from the autonomous island region of Sardinia (Sardegna) in Italy. The wine is based on Vermentino grown in 19 communes in the provinces of Sassari (17) and Nuoro (2) in the hills of the Gallura peninsula in the extreme north-eastern corner (the “Gallura”) of the Italian island of Sardinia (Sardegna). The DOC was granted in 1975, and in 1996 was upgraded to DOCG, Sardinia’s first (Dino Addis of the Cantine Sociale Gallura pushed for DOCG status). A Superiore version is permitted (details below). Vermentino from around the Tempio Pausania area on the peninsula is noted by Burton Anderson (1990, p.291).

‘Although it is now found throughout Sardinia, Vermentino expresses itself best, yielding wines of outstanding personality, in the Gallura, an area incessantly swept by the fierce wind from the Alps, the Mistral. The area’s dry, harsh soils are not conducive to most agricultural production. The quality of the wine is due not only to the microclimatic conditions but also to the character of the terrain, which features a thin and poor substratum of granitic material,’ (Doug Wregg in Les Caves de Pyrène list July 2011).

Ian d’Agata (2019, p.322) points out that the granite here is highly acidic, and shows a ‘very particular’ pink colour, adding that although such granite soil is quite rare in Italy, Gallura is not ‘granite only’ as some areas also have sand and clay.

Communes: Nuoro province. Budoni. | San Teodoro.

Terroir: Ian d’Agata (2019, p.322) divides the production zone into two areas: coastal and non-coastal, or internal. The internal area he also divides in two: practically mountainous, and less mountainous (softer, less steep slopes). Falling into his practically mountainous category are the towns of Aggius, Tempio Pausania, Calangianus and Lucas. D’Agata says Vermentino from here shows stoniness, yellow fruit and caper flavours. Two other towns, Monti and Berchidda, usually classed as mountainous are on the border between the Gallura and Luguodoro to the west, and area of softer, less steep slopes–especially Berchidda–compared to internal Callura, says D’Agata. This sort of halfway house produces some of the Gallura’s most balanced Vermentino wines, says D’Agata.

Coastal Gallura covers the towns of Arzachena, Badesi, Lori Porto San Paolo, Olbia and Palau. The soils comprise granite, and warm easily. The climate shows marked day-night temperature variations, and with earlier ripening compared to the mountainous area (Ian d’Agata, 2019, p.322). D’Agata (op. cit.) cites the area around Badesi as unique in coastal Gallura for its finer, sand-like desegregated (six) granite and wines which he finds ‘extremely balsamic’ and mineral (Ian d’Agata, 2019, p.322). The area is right by the sea and is an area if bush vines.

Wine style: The wine is made from the Vermentino grape (95-100%), as well as optionally from other permitted white varieties (up to 5%). With a minimum alcohol content of 13% vol it may be called Superiore. See also Vermentino di Sardegna DOC. The wine has a yellow straw colour with green tinges and is delicately bitter. Ian d’Agata (2019, p.322) finds green apple, and white flowers: acacia, hawthorn and helichrysum, the latter being ‘archetypal’ for Gallura Vermentino.

Wineries

Website: www.stradavermentinogallura.com

Bibliography

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

Dr Ian d’Agata, Native Wine Grape Terroirs (University of California Press, 2019), p322.