Cardedu Orange Wine, Bucce | 2022

This is, as we like to say, orange wine lite. It's a blend of the white grapes, Vermentino and Nasco, with the noble red of Sardinia, Cannonau, Bucce refers to skins, and orange wines are an exaggerated version of white wines, in which the juice sits with the skins longer. Depending on the concentration of pigment within the skins and the thickness of the skins, they can sit for a few days, up to several months, resulting in a wine that appears orange in the glass Note: wines can be orange colored for other reasons like oxidation, botrytis, or a high-level of flavonoids.

Cardedu, named after its village, is located in the southeast quadrant of Sardinia, about a two-hour drive north of Cagliari. Here, Sergio Loi is the 4th generation gatekeeper, whose family has always practiced no chemical farming and minimum intervention in the cellar since the 1900s. Natural wine is not a trend at Cardedu, it's a way of life. In the glass Bucce intrigues the senses with peach, apricot, and rosemary. It's expansive on the palate, stretching out like a blanket, but has that Mediterranean tang, lift, and glide. A wine that makes you feel like you're close to the sea, with a platter of curly seafood in front of you. Now, who wouldn't want that? ~Allegra Angelo