A Tasting of Sardinia - Capichera Vintages Back to 1990

Capichera is one of Sardinia’s leading wineries, who make, in my opinion, one of Italy’s best white wines from a native variety (Vermentino).

The vineyards are located near the spectacular beaches of the Costa Smeralda where they have a special terroir, known locally as gallurese made from broken down granite. The sea breezes help to keep temperatures down during the summer.

The estate produces two whites: the estate white simply known as ‘Capichera’, which is tank fermented and aged with only 10% barrique ageing, and ‘Vendemmia Tardiva’ which confusingly is not a sweet wine, but is simply picked approximately two weeks later then vinified in barrique. The reds come from the Sulcis zone in the south of the island, famous for wines such as Rocca Rubia and Terre Brune from Santadi. Capichera rent vineyards here and make two reds exclusively from Carignano: ‘Assaje’ which only has a small part of oak ageing, and ‘Mantenghja’ from old vines and aged in 100% new barriques.

I was treated to a "vertical tasting" (in trade speak this is a flight of wines from different vintages) of these older vintages during a visit to the winery in June 2004. Who would have thought thse whites would have held up so well?

Read on for the tasting notes.