Deperu Holler "Fria" Vermentino di Gallura Superiore, Sardinia, Italy 2020

FROM KERMIT LYNCH:

THE WINE: 100% Vermentino. Grown on a rocky escarpment in northern Sardinia, this Vermentino is the epitome of a great Mediterranean white. There is fleshy, golden, sun-ripened fruit, an evocative note of wild herbs and flowers drifting through a summer breeze, and the finish is not just saline, but full-on salty, as if a Mediterranean storm surge somehow ended up in the tank. The vines are farmed organically, regularly licked by cleansing winds off the coast, and the wine is fermented spontaneously and bottled unfiltered. You won’t find a more authentic or refreshing expression of island Vermentino than this.

THE PRODUCER: In the north of Sardegna, Carlo Deperu and his wife Tatiana Holler are carrying forth Sardegna's winemaking traditions with passion, joy, and infectious zeal. The couple met in Milan, where Carlo earned his degree in viticulture and enology while Tatiana had come to study advertising from her native Brazil. In 2005, they settled back to Carlo’s hometown of Perfugas, where his family had long made some wine for home consumption. Carlo and Tatiana replanted the family vineyards and expanded their holdings, bringing the surface under vine to six hectares. This intersection of the hilly Anglona region and the more mountainous Gallura (home to Sardegna’s only DOCG, Vermentino di Gallura), features a fascinating mix of soils of sedimentary and igneous origin including limestone, clay, chalk, marl, shale, decomposed granite, and volcanic rock. Situated just ten kilometers away, the sea brings constant fresh breezes, while the cleansing maestrale wind plays a crucial role in facilitating organic viticulture. In fact, Carlo and Tatiana eschew herbicides and synthetic fertilizers in the vineyard, opting instead for regenerative solutions like herbal tisanes to treat the vines and planting cover crops to balance and protect their soils.