~ The entrance to the cellars at Agricola Punica ~
When you combine Giacomo Tachis and Tenuta San Guido with Cantina Santadi and some of the best Sardinian terroir, it should come as no surprise that you craft a wine that repeatedly earns Tre Bicchieri awards. Barrua is one such wine. What could rightfully be described as a benchmark for the island, this Sardinian superstar is consistently excellent. From the beginning, Tachis conceived Barrua as an ultra premium wine. His vision was to create a marriage between Tuscany and Sardinia; “it must be a masterful blend and will be a resounding wine!”
~ Wonderful grapes hanging on the Agricola Punica Estate ~
I can easily understand how wine lovers may have an issue with this wine. I think it’s easily among the best Sardinian wines I’ve had. The trouble is, what does exceptional Sardinian terroir represent? How should a great Sardinian wine taste?
The island is enormous and is Italy’s third largest region after Sicily and Piedmont. As a result, the terrain varies widely from desert, to snow peaked mountains and sandy vineyards. Some of the most important wineries are Pala, Punica and Argiolas. All three have impressed. Yet, while Cannonau is probably the islands most widely planted and well known grape, it’s absent from Barrua. Is that atypical? As a consequence, I can understand the criticism from those who may feel Barrua is too “international”. However, I have none to give. I’ll leave it at that and entertain your thoughts in the comment section.
~ Vineyards on the Agricola Punica Estate ~
Punica’s 65 hectares of vineyards lay inland from the coast and are comprised of Carignano, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah. Barrua is a blend of three of these varieties. Vinified in stainless steel, the wine is aged for 18 months in French barrique; 30% of which are new. We did not decant the wine, however I opened it about 60 minutes before dinner.
The 2015 Barrua is an outstanding wine. Deep crimson red with purple reflections, the wine boasts intriguing aromas of crushed black plum, eucalyptus, baking spices, sweet tobacco and licorice. Full bodied, the ripe black plum fruit is rich and fresh on the palate. Accented with rosemary, wet stones and a sandy texture this drinks very well now despite the significant tannic structure. At around $38-$40 this remains an excellent value. 93 points. Find this wine.
~ Barrua is 85% Carignano, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot. ~
For more data points on Barrua, go here: 2011, and 2013
Salute!
Sounds delicious, John. A new wine and new wine region for me. Thanks for sharing!
Yep, thanks. Sardinia is worth checking out. Also look for Pala. Great young winemaker there too.
In my opinion I would remove that 15% of Cab-Merlot and replace it with Bovale or Cannonau…????????
Well, then it would not be a combination of Sardinia and Tuscany which was the original inspiration. Pala wines are really great too.
Hi John,
Glad to read this, as I also have some 2015 in the cellar (I also still have some 2013 and 1 bottle of 2010 remaining).
Interesting question on Sardinian terroir and on what a Sardinian wine must be like. I will just offer my 2 cents…
– I have to admit I am not a fan of cannonau. This is basically just grenache / garnacha, of which I am not really fond (of course with a few exceptions…). Moreover, I consider this grape to be more typical and suited in France’s southern rhone and in the spanish region of Priorat.
– Montosoli makes an interesting point of replacing the cabernet and merlot by bovale (I just explained why I would not include cannonau…). That would indeed make it an all-Sardinian blend. This is of course countered by your remark on the idea of marrying Tuscany to Sardinia
– Or why not just go with 100% carignano? You then have an monovarietal wine, which is not Tachis’ field; if I am not mistaken, all the wines he created were blends. So a monovarietal would be in contradiction with his heritage…
– You can of course argue that cabernet and merlot are not really typical Tuscan. And you would, in my opinion, be right (I would allow the exception for Carmignano DOCG though 😉 ). But you know what is Tuscan? Sangiovese! So, why not change the blend to remove cabernet and merlot and replace it with… nielluccio!
There is still some debate on this apparently, but the fact is that nielluccio is genetically almost identical to sangiovese :-), see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielluccio
Only problem of course is that nielluccio is not (yet) planted in Sardinia, if I’m not mistaken. It is found in Corsica… so, close, but no cigar!
From a hypothetical point of view, I would however love to see what a carignano blend with some nielluccio would be like…
Best regards,
Steven – well, you make interesting points but we never really got back around to what Sardinian terroir must or should be? 🙂 And I tend to agree with you on Cannonau though the wines from Pala are pretty nice. He also makes a 100% Bovale that you might want to check out. Fabio is a very talented winemaker and maybe it’s time for me to update my tastings of his wines. He has a few Tre Bicchieri to his name too. Glad to see you are well in Belgium. All is ok here. A bit stir crazy at times but really, we have little to complain about. Stay well and stay in touch! By the way, if you are not registered for my Newsletter, you should. The next one comes out tomorrow and it is going to have a really nice benefit for my readers!
Hi John,
Apologies for the delay in answering (apparently I needed some time to think about this 🙂 ).
I think there not 1 terroir for Sardinia, as you say, the island is way too big to limit it to only 1 type. It would be like limiting Tuscany to only chianti and missing out on all the rest.
But if you ask me which grape I associate the most with Sardinia, than I would say carignano, no doubt.
I have very limited experience with bovale, I should look into that. It is/was already on my “to do”-wine list, but I still have not found the time to do this.
Cheers,
Steven