Dry white

Vermentino di Gallura

Robe — Pale straw with green glints

  • lemon
  • green apple
  • wild herbs
  • almond
  • sea breeze
Palate
Dry and crisp with a saline, faintly bitter finish
Ageing
Drink young, 1–3 years
Serving
9–11 °C

In the granite hills of Gallura, in Sardinia's wild north, Vermentino makes its finest wine — and holds Italy's only white DOCG. The maritime wind and decomposed-granite soils give a white of real intensity: lemon and wild herb, a saline snap and the grape's characteristic bitter-almond finish.

Everywhere else on the Mediterranean coast Vermentino is a pleasant, breezy summer white; here in Gallura it gains weight, structure and a mineral cut that set it apart. It is the sea-scented signature white of Sardinia.

The blend

A typical modern composition

Where it is made

Producers

A few estates working in this style today — a sample, not a ranking

Through time

Indicative presence index, 0–100Origins & Antiquity — 5The Monastic Middle Ages — 20Exploration & the Fortified Age — 30Classifications & the Golden Age — 35Phylloxera & the World Crises — 35The Modern & New World Era — 65Antiquity5500150017001875195065