Nepente di Oliena Cannonau di Sardinia '15

A co-op on the island of Sardegna, off the Mediterranean coast of Italy, just south of Corsica, Oliena was founded in 1950 by a group of local farmers with the aim of preserve and advance the quality of Cannanau, the local clone of the Spanish variety Garnacha (Grenache). By mixing the best of what history and tradition have to offer with modern advances in winemaking, they've established a record of quality.

Most of the vineyards here are trained up small trees, rather than as free-standing bush vines or modern trellis systems, and are dry-farmed. Harvest is done by hand, into small baskets to avoid crushing the grapes before they reach the cellar. The wine then sees up to twelve days of maceration on the skins to extract color and structure, before maturing in cement tanks.

It's a full-bodied wine, deep in color, with intriguing aromas, and rich, structured fruit. A versatile wine, perfect for the winter, paired with anything from spaghetti and meatballs to stew, or on it's own, maybe with a chunk of aged cheese.