Sardegna
Monti
It is almost a sad thing that such a broad DOC for Vermentino exists as "Vermentino di Sardegna". 9300 square miles of the island all qualifying for the same designation. I believe this may be part of the confusion and reason for the lack of esteem here in the US for the DOCG zone of Vermentino di Gallura, one of Italy's great white wines and one of the rare white DOCG's in all of Italy. You see, even though there is some good Vermentino di Sardegna, there is also a sea of plonk. Really bad Vermentino di Gallura I haven't found yet, (it must exist) but the best are THRILLING! On Sevenfifty there are 23 VdS DOC wines and only 4 VdG DOCG wines. Yes the others are cheaper but you just cannot compare the character and quality, and "hey! this is NY!" The main difference is that in Gallura the decomposed granitic soils do real wonders for this varietal. Tonnino Tani and his two lovely daughters Angelica and Roberta, are making some seriously good VdG! His wife Federica is in charge of the kitchen.
Tonnino and his big brothers began planting vineyards about 40 years ago, when he was a boy. The family had a Trattoria and Inn and so aside from wine for the family, they made their own wine for the restaurant. (Which appeared on my visit to be able to deplete a fair amount annually!) Tonnino especially liked the vineyard work and so they kept buying and planting and what grapes they didn't need for their own production, they sold to the co-op. It all happened rather organically rather than some lightning bolt of "lets be real wine producers!"It is very common still in Sardegna that nearly every family has a small vineyard and makes some homemade wine. What grapes aren't chosen for their own prodcution gets taken to the co-op. But as the vines got older and yields diminished, the idea of selling to the co-op at the prices they pay just no longer seemed attractive, so Tonnino built a bigger facility and since 2006 no longer sells the fruit. The oldest vineyards (averaging over 30 years) produce little and go into the Taerra bottling. The younger vines are at least 15 years old now and produce the Meoru bottling.