Carignano del Sulcis

Carignano del Sulcis

CARIGNANO DEL SULCIS (DOC)

Region Sulcis, located on the southwestern tip of Sardinia, was one of the first areas of Phoenician settlement on the island. The Phoenicians were later driven out of there by the Carthaginians., whose place was then taken by the Romans.

Viticulture was one of the first forms of agriculture introduced by the new settlers., and each subsequent people, who settled there brought with him better and better cultivation techniques and new grape varieties. The settlement on the island was of a rather complex nature and therefore, in an effort to determine the origin of the strain now known as Carignano del Sulcis, it is difficult to separate history from legend. According to the most likely hypothesis, based on the analysis of numerous dialectal synonyms, this variety comes from the west, probably from Aragon, Spain, from where it has spread widely, under different names, from the south of France, all the way to Algeria and Tunisia. In Sardinia, this variety is grown mainly in the south-western part of the island, due to its resistance to salty winds blowing from the sea.

Initially, Carignano del Sulcis wine was valued mainly as an ideal wine for admixtures, which resulted – as in the case of other Italian wines in the Mediterranean – from its strength and high alcohol concentration. However, changes made to vineyards in recent years 30 years made, that nowadays this variety makes it possible to produce extremely pleasant wine, which has already gained quite a significant market share.