2021 Pala, Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva DOC, Sardinia, Italy.
The beautifully textural and brilliantly ruby hued Pala Cannonau Riserva shines in the glass and delivers a full bodied and rich palate of dark red berry, plum, red currant and candied cherry fruits, along with snappy herbs, peppery spices, loamy earth, lilac florals, sandalwood and salted licorice notes. The Pala Cannonau has been a standard barer for Sardinian wines for many years and is usually a top value, with the single vineyard Riserva being a step up in elegance and complexity, and regularly being award winning stuff, as this vintage was, earning a Tre Bicchieri from Gambero Rosso. The Pala family’s wines date back to 1950, with the winery being founded by Salvatore Pala, and is based in the small town Serdiana, in the southwest of the island. In recent years the world has re-discovered Sardinian’s signature red wine, Cannonau, and there’s many excellent examples available, with Pala’s being good way to start exploring this historic version of Grenache.
The Pala Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva Denominazione di Origine Controllata is 100% Cannonau (Grenache) from, as mentioned, a single vineyard, Crabilis (Ussana), which sits up at between 150-180 Meters above sea level on Calcareous soils with vines that average 45 years old. At harvest the grapes are hand picked and see 100% de-stemming, but put whole berries into stainless steel tanks for maceration and fermentation. This primary fermentation is done at controlled temperatures for close to 40 days, with, as the winery notes, some punch downs and pump overs, with the frequency depending on the vintage. After alcoholic fermentation, the malolactic fermentation is also completed in tank where the wine rested for close to 3 months, after which the refinement continued in large used 3,000L oak barrels for 12 months. As I’ve noted in past reviews of Cannonau wines, Grenache has been here on Sardinia since ancient times and recent discoveries seem to conclude that it may in fact have originated here, instead of Spain, as once thought, but regardless it’s a great time to enjoy these wines and I recommend this one highly.
($29 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive