Argiolas Vermentino di Sardegna Costamolino (2010)

After college, I traveled around Europe with a buddy of mine. Though Genoa is obviously not at the top of the list of cities for college grads backpacking the continent (and the trash-covered beach we visited hardly changed my mind about that), a friend of my dad’s lived there, so we planned a slight detour.

That night, our host Antonio asked if we wanted to go out to eat, or if we’d rather stay in. Having eaten out for at least two straight weeks, we jumped at the chance to have a relaxing home-cooked meal. It being a small apartment, however, home-cooked became a trip to a little store near Antonio’s, where he procured two foods I had never eaten before: basil pesto and gnocchi. (He also bought this un-BE-lievable foccacia that was so saturated in oil, the bag it was in was soaking wet.) This meal was simple and unexpected, but it blew my mind. Despite this having happened quite a long time ago, it remains to this day one of the most memorable meals of my life. How had I lived without this fragrant, sweet, salty, phenomenal sauce for so long? From that day forward, pesto became part of my regular culinary routine and is now one of my all-time favorite foods.

But before now, I’d never drank Vermintino, the white wine that hails from Liguria (pesto’s homeland) and thus makes it the most natural pairing to the sauce that’s fragrance could be easily overpowered by red wine (though I must say I have drank and enjoyed red wine with pesto on plenty of occasions). As such, this varietal has been at the top of my list of aromatic whites from Northern Italy to try, especially next to a bowl of pesto.

You may, of course, have noticed that this particular wine is not from Liguria. It is from Sardinia, of all places, the region I recently referred to as “rather low on the list” of Italian wine regions that I want to explore. But, it was the only Vermintino on a restaurant wine list that focused on interesting Italian wines, and after my excellent and surprising experience with my first Sardinian wine, I went for it.

Though I can check off the varietal from my list, my date with a Ligurian Vermintino and some great Pesto Genovese still awaits.

Tasting Notes:

Strong aroma of cantaloupe with notes of coconut and wildflowers. Sweeter than I expected, but nice, medium-full, soft mouthfeel. Hint of slate on the finish. Versatile with food and quite tasty. Overpriced at a high-end restaurant but would gladly buy again at $14.

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