Viticulture is an activity known to the Sardinian population since about 5000 years, and the special relationship created on this island, over time, between man and wine is so deep that it can be compared only with that in the Caucasus region. Even if we wanted to consider only modern times, those who had the opportunity to visit Sardinia in the early ‘900 would have been struck by the impressive quantity of wine producers, considering also those who did it only for family use.The rural inhabitants of that time were a breed that contained in every single representative a mix of sheep farming, agriculture and, consequently, viticulture. One of these was Battistino Pala who, already in the 1920s, produced for personal consumption a white wine and a red one obtained respectively by Nuragus and Monica, two vines (the first white berry and the second red berry) that he cultivated in the lands owned by Serdiana, 20 kilometres north of Cagliari Gulf.
This tradition was kept alive and expanded by Battistino’s son, Salvatore, who, in 1950, produced those wines no longer for personal consumption: the Azienda Agricola Pala Salvatore was born. Since 1950 much has changed, even the name of the company, which today is simply called Pala, but the love of this family for quality wine has never failed. The company passed, in 1995, from Salvatore to his three sons Mario, Gilberto and Enrico, with the last two who in 2007 took other roads and sold to Mario, the only current owner, their quotes.
Since 1998 the winery has started to produce, one after the other, a series of wines that have in short become true icons of viticulture of the Southern Sardinia and, in particular, of the Cagliari area. Among them is undoubtedly the Entemari, a blend of Vermentino (50%), Chardonnay (30%) and Malvasia Sarda (20%), cultivated between the vineyards “Is Crabilis”, in Ussana, and “Aquasassa”, in Serdiana, both planted on calcareous clay soils rich in skeleton, at 180 meters of altitude, with vines from the age of 25 to 60 years. After careful manual selection, the grapes are pressed gently and left to macerate for a few hours, then, after racking, the must ferments in stainless steel tanks. The wine obtained is lightly clarified and then aged on its lees, always in steel, for 12 months. A few more months of rest in bottles and the wine is ready for marketing.
The 2017 vintage has a straw yellow color of good intensity with both greenish and golden shades, and an olfactory range that opens with notes of yellow peach, dried apricot, myrtle and helichrysum, followed by prickly pear, chlorophyll and hawthorn, with final echoes of damp white pebbles and iodine. The taste is mainly characterized by the brilliant balance between the glyceric softness (which could give almost an idea of sweetness) and the iodine flavor, with the citrus freshness that slowly makes its way along with a pinch of white pepper, all accompanied by the return of fruit and Sardinian vegetation that accompany the sip until a good length closure.
Rating: 89/100
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