2006 Argiolas Isola del Sole Bianco Sardinia. 85% Vermentino and 15% of another local grape named Nuragus. $12 at Beekman, Glen Rock.
Pale yellow color, light hue, lovely fruit and spice flavors and taste, good acidity, a pleasant finish and a lovely sipping wine that would go well with fish as you would expect from a Sardinian wine or roasted vegetables. Great QPR; although it's such a pleasant sipping wine, I'm tempted to open a second bottle.
Notes:
OCW3rd: Vermentino is an attractive, aromatic white grape variety widely grown in Sardegna, Liguria, to a limited extent in Corsica, and to an increasing extent in Languedoc and Roussillon, where it is a recently permitted variety in many appellations, including white Côtes du Roussillon. dna profiling showed it is identical to the Ligurian pigato and the Piedmont variety favorita. It is also thought by most, but not all, authorities to be identical to the variety long grown in eastern Provence as rolle and sometimes called Rollo in north western Italy.
OCW3rd: Nuragus is a white grape variety grown principally to produce the unremarkable varietal Nuragus di Cagliari on the island of Sardegna.
OCW3rd: Sardegna is known as Sardinia in English (the Italian adjective is Sardo), Mediterranean island 200 km/125 miles off the coast of Italy at its nearest point, governed by Carthage before conquest by Ancient Rome, and subsequently by Byzantines, Arabs, and Catalans. (See map under Italy.) Sardegna became an integral part of Italy only in 1726, when it was ceded to the House of Savoy. Historically, linguistically, and culturally, as well as geographically, the island seems detached from the mainstream of Italian civilization, and it is therefore no surprise that most of its significant grape varieties — Vermentino, Cannonau, Carignano (carignan), Bovale (thought to be Bobal) — are of Spanish origin and that, due to limited local demand, and few commercial contacts with the mainland, viticulture dedicated to quality is developing so slowly. ...
Carignano del Sulcis has produced some of the island's best wines in recent years, especially those from the co-operative in Santadi. This producer, Argiolas, and Barrua, a more recent joint venture between Santadi and the Incisa family of Sassicaia, with winemaker Giacomo Tachis.
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