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05/02/2001 Archived Entry: "Wine Buy: Cannonau di Sardegna"

Cannonau di Sardegna (pronounced Can-no-now di Sar-dain-ya) is the Grenache grape in Sardinia, or, I should say, the Grenache wine in Sardinia. I know Grenache mainly from California, where it produces light, fruity wines with distinctive strawberry and raspberry notes. I don’t usually use that kind of wine language but in this case its really true. Even a novice wine geek would describe Grenache as smelling and tasting of strawberries and raspberries. From Sardinia, at least judging by this wine from the highly regarded producer Sella & Mosca, the Grenache grape makes a lusher and bolder wine, but also a wine that I think should be drunk when it is relatively young and still fresh. Here’s a case where the vintage date is less important as information about the wine crop than it is for knowing the age of the wine.

Carol Berman and I tasted the 1998 Riserva on the radio, which impressed me as a wine I could enjoy this summer with the braised tuna I like to make (with tomatoes, olives and garlic). On the radio, we sipped it with the great hot-smoked salmon brought to us from Oregon by my other guest, fish specialist Gary Puetz. I can easily see Cannonau with grilled salmon and other fatty fish, even swordfish, but of course, as a red wine, it would be delicious with meat, roast chicken, even hamburgers from the grill.

For my personal edification, Carol also brought me a bottle of the 1996 Riserva. I drank that bottle with my houseguest and friend Cecilia Bellelli Baratta from Salerno, who really knows her wine. We both agreed that we liked the younger wine better. The older wine had lost its fruity appeal and what was left was a clunkier wine, which is not a wine term, but apt in this case. I called Carol and told her what we thought and she absolutely agreed.

The wine sells for about $11.99. Sella & Mosca wines are well-distributed, but if you have trouble finding them (Carol and I are very fond of their Vermentino), tell your wine merchant that it is imported by Palm Bay Imports, Boca Raton, Florida.