Tenute Dettori
Romagnia, Sardinia
- Certified Biodynamic (Demeter) since 2003 and a member of Triple-A (Agricoltori, Artigiani, e Artisti)
- Estate-grown, varietal, single-vineyard wines from native Sardinian grapes: cannonau, vermentino, pascale, monica, and Moscato
- “I do not follow the market; I make wines that please me, wine of my own local area, wines of Sennori. They are what they have to be and not what you want them to be.”
Found 4km from the sea on the northwest coast of the island of Sardinia in the town of Sennori, Tenute Dettori is “simple, traditional, Sardinian.” Alessandro Dettori’s family has been producing wine since the 19th century and in 1981 Paolo, Alessandro’s father, began to bottle wine. Alessandro has made the deliberate decision to not label under the Sardegna DOP, but instead prefers the Romagnia IGP as it is less generalized. One will also find the name of the family’s Cru, “Badde Nigolosu,” on each label.
The Dettori farm sits at just 250m elevation on limestone soils across 33 hectares. The wines of Dettori are pure, natural expressions of the Badde Nigolosu vineyard’s terroir. “I only used cements to vinify and mature the wine. Never any wood to tame the tannins. Only great skillful work in the vineyard: the grapes arrive in the cellar already with everything it takes to make a great wine.” The entire winery is built underground with 2-3-meter-thick walls that help naturally regulate the temperature.
The wines are unfined, unfiltered and additive free. No sulfur is ever used during the winemaking process. All work in the winery is done by hand or with the aid of gravity; the only time electricity is utilized is during destemming and bottling. The vines are dry-farmed and trained in the ancient Albarello, or “little tree” method in which each vine is staked by itself and meticulously pruned to support itself, similar to Gobelet in Southern France.
The Cannonau Grape
Cannonau is an indigenous Sardinian grape variety. Until a few years ago, it was thought that cannonau was simply a different name for the French grenache, the Spanish garnacha, and the Veneto’s tocai rosso. Finally, however, instead of relying on presumptions, historic-social and scientific studies have been carried out recently that have underlined two crucial facts. First, cannonau and grenache share in common only 82% of their genetic makeup (Universitá di Sassari Nieddu, ET AL. C.S.). Second, cannonau arose in Sardinia before it appeared in the rest of Europe. There are numerous official documents that attest to this. In one dating to 1549, the notary Bernardino Coni of Cagliari mentions cannonau, while the term garnacha, referring to a Spanish red wine, comes a full two centuries later. Although the cannonau of Seville is actually a non-existent variety, for years it was thought that cannonau derived from that grape. But that was due to a transcription error regarding canocazo, an Andalusian white grape.
Available wines from Tenute Dettori:
Renosu Rosso
- Varieties: Cannonau, Monica, Pascale
- Vinification: destemmed, macerated 12 days, all ferments occur spontaneously in concrete vats before being gently racked into small concrete vats for aging
- Aging: 5 months in concrete vats
- Vine Age: 20-80 years
Renosu Bianco
- Varieties: Vermentino and Moscato di Sennori
- Vinification: Direct pressed, all ferments occur spontaneously in concrete vats before being gently racked into small concrete vats for aging
- Aging: short maturation, bottled fresh
- Vine Age: 20-80 years
Dettori Bianco
- Varieties:
- Vinification: 7-10 days skin maceration, all ferments occur spontaneously in concrete vats before being gently racked into small concrete vats for aging
- Aging: 8 months in small concrete vats
- Vine Age: 55+ years
Tuderi Rosso
- Varieties:
- Vinification: destemmed, 2 week open-top fermentation, all ferments occur spontaneously in concrete vats before being gently racked into small concrete vats for aging
- Aging: 4 years in small concrete vats
- Vine Age: 50+ years
Dettori Rosso
- Varieties: Cannonau
- Vinification: destemmed, 2 week open-top fermentation, all ferments occur spontaneously in concrete vats before being gently racked into small concrete vats for aging
- Aging: 5 years in small concrete vats
- Vine Age: 135+, own-rooted
Other wines from Tenute Dettori:
Moscadeddu (skin-contact white Moscato), Chimbanta (old-vine monica), Tenores (old-vine cannonau), Ottomarzo (old-vine Pascal)
