Argiolas Is Argiolas Vermentino di Sardegna 2020

Then earlier this year, I got my hands on Piero Mancini’s Vermentino. I had forgotten how good white wines from Sardinia could be. That little wine was fantastic and fun and accompanied by a nice 90-point review. The feedback I got was that it hit the spot.

But today’s wine aint as much a “fun, little” wine as it is a serious and sophisticated bottling from arguably the island’s best producer. You see, while Sardinia is enjoying their moment in the sun — the wines of Argiolas have firmly been in the spotlight for the better part of the last decade, with this being the fourth straight vintage their flagship white has been rewarded with a 93-point score or higher. Here’s why:

There’s a very special thing that happens when Vermentino is grown in the proper place, somewhere with a near constant salt water sea breeze. It takes on a salty, minerality that helps it pair so beautifully with great cuisine. Nowhere is this more apparent than within the Gallura region in Sardinia.

But at Argiolas– quality has always been more important than quantity. So since the 1930’s while many of their neighbors have been pushing out literal truckloads white table wine, the Vermentino di Sardegna from Argiolas was the main attraction, not just an early season cash cow.

Decades of consistent quality has made them the premier winery on the Island, and many have copied their proven methods including picking their Vermentino late into the fall to maximize the fruit’s ripeness and balance it with the region’s natural acidity but no one can replicate the ancient vineyards. The resulting wines are full-bodied, intricate and long with a depth and a sophistication that few thought Vermentino would ever be able to produce.