Cantina Santa Maria La Palma Le Bombarde Cannonau di Sardegna 2017
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Bright, clear, deep ruby red. A fine, intense perfume with characteristic elegant scents. Dry, full and warm, it is velvety but robust, and harmonious with its pleasantly characteristic tannin flavor.
Ideal with red meats, game and mature cheeses.
It is a story that speaks of the ability to trust one another, and of the desire to build something great, without forgetting how much beauty and how much value are hidden away in what surrounds us: endless plains facing out to sea, sheltered by a cove between the Gulf of Alghero and the Bay of Porto Conte. These are fortunate lands, caressed by the wind and kissed by the sun. It is a story that speaks of the precious lessons learned through daily toil. This story, our story, starts very long ago and lasts all the way to today.
It all began in 1946, in the Nurra area, which had been reclaimed and given to the farmworkers following the Agrarian Reform that was implemented in Sardinia in the immediate post-war period. The locals were blessed with skilled, courageous hands that had the capacity to capture the soul of a part of the island that seems to have been designed for winemaking. And so, in 1959, one hundred of them decided to enter into a co-operative and to found the Cantina Santa Maria la Palma (Santa Maria la Palma Winery).
Today, past and future are being combined seamlessly through the new technologies deployed in every project put together by the Winery, which can leverage a tradition that has always married innovation to love for the local soil.
700 hectares of land on the estate are under vine, giving rise to a wealth of highly nuanced Sardinian wines, all made with the same passion and dedication as always, while also taking advantage of everything that state-of-the-art technology has to offer.
The dedication to quality is the thread that runs throughout our history: selecting methods and techniques to produce the finest grapes, enhancing and protecting the soil – all with a view to exceeding our consumers’ expectations and to being worthy inheritors of this noble tradition that we are carrying forward.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
Hailed for centuries as a Mediterranean vine-growing paradise, multiple cultures over many centuries have ruled the large island of Sardinia. Set in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Phonoecians, Ancient Rome, and subsequently the Byzantines, Arabs and Catalans have all staked a claim on the island at some point in history. Along the way, these inhabitants transported many of their homeland’s prized vines and today Sardinia’s modern-day indigenous grape varieties claim multiple origins. Sardinia’s most important red grapes—namely Cannonau (a synonym for Grenache) and Carignan—are actually of Spanish origin.
Vermentino, a prolific Mediterranean variety, is the island’s star white. Vermentino has a stronghold the Languedoc region of France as well as Italy’s western and coastal regions, namely Liguria (where it is called Pigato), Piedmont (where it is called Favorita) and in Tuscany, where it goes by the name, Vermentino. The best Vermentino, in arguably all of the Mediterranean, grows in Sardinia's northeastern region of Gallura where its vines struggle to dig roots deep down into north-facing slopes of granitic soils. These Vermentino vines produce highly aromatic, full and concentrated whites of unparalleled balance.
Today aside from its dedication to viticulture, Sardinia remains committed to maintaining its natural farmlands, bucolic plains of grazing sheep and perhaps most of all, its sandy, sunny, Mediterranean beaches.