Cannonau

Cannonau is Sardinia's name for Grenache (Garnacha), the grape behind the island's signature red, Cannonau di Sardegna DOC. Grown across the hot, dry, granite and schist hills of the Mediterranean's second-largest island — above all in the rugged Nuoro province and the Barbagia and Ogliastra highlands — it makes warm, generous, full-bodied reds of medium-to-deep garnet colour, high alcohol and soft-to-firm tannin, tasting of ripe red and black cherry, plum, dried fig and strawberry over Mediterranean scrub (macchia), dried herbs, licorice, leather and a warm, spiced earthiness. Far more robust, alcoholic and rustic than most mainland French Grenache, it is the proud red of the Sardinian table and a wine wrapped in the island's reputation for longevity.