Gungui Berteru 2019

“The 2019 Cannonau di Sardegna Berteru is remarkably pretty, enticing the senses with a display of crushed violets, strawberries, Mediterranean herbs and smoke. It’s silky and textural, soothing all that it touches with purple-tinged wild berry fruits and sweet spice, carried by brisk acids and leaving a staining of minerals and inner florals toward the close. There is no sign of its 15% abv as it tapers off to a mix of youthful structure, lingering inner sweetness and hints of blackberry. The Berteru is sourced from bush-trained vines planted in soils of decomposed granite at elevations averaging 600 meters above sea level. It’s quite compelling. Drinking window: 2022-2026. 92 points

Cantina Gungui is located in the small town of Mammoiada in the hills of central Sardinia. The 2019 Berteru from Luca Gungui, owner and winemaker was the dark horse within my tastings of Sardinia, and more specifically, Cannonau. It was here that Gungui returned from city life to begin tending his grandfather’s three hectares of vineyards. Practices have been all organic since day one, with the first vintage being 2015. Even as holdings have expanded to four hectares, there is seldom a need to use copper or sulfur in these sunny, windswept vineyards. The soils here are primarily decomposed granite at elevations ranging from 600 to 700 meters. Many of the original bush-trained vines are now over 60 years old. Whenever replanting is necessary, Luca Gungui uses only massal selection from the original vines. Fermentations take place spontaneously using indigenous yeasts, and the wine is refined completely in stainless steel. If you are in search of pure, high-elevation expressions of Sardinian Cannonau (Grenache/Garnacha), then Gungui Berteru should be on your shortlist.”

Eric Guido, Vinous (03/21)