Santadi

It sometimes helps to think of Sulcis, in south-western Sardinia, as Sardinia's Yorkshire (but with better weather), a coal-mining region where the coal mines have been shut by government decree. For the people of Sulcis, alternative employment came either through migration - it's said that if you look in any Italian restaurant kitchen in London you'll find at least one Sardinian working there - or through grape-growing. Local producer Santadi is of the latter group, with the company's dozens of growers producing wines prized throughout Italy for their suppleness and refinement. They don't tend to promote this however (Sardinians are often unassuming and, by Italian standards, even introverted) but these Carignano and Vermentino wines are suffused with distinctive character, and are a perfectly pitched combination of warmth and freshness.