Sardegna

Sardinia is closer to Tunisia than it is to Rome and has spent most of its history behaving accordingly. Cannonau is Grenache: it arrived under Spanish rule, found soil it liked, and never went home — the wines are warm-fruited but dusty and dry, not sweet. The island’s only DOCG is a white, Vermentino di Gallura, grown on decomposed granite in the north. Nuragic stone towers older than Rome still stand in these vineyards, which tells you how long people have been farming here.