wine in Sardinia | traditional wines
NURAGUS
synonyms: Burdu, Scacciadebiti, Pagadepidu…
- Alcoholic content: 10,0/11,00% Vol.
- Serving temperature: 6-8 °C
Organoleptic characteristics
Straw-coloured, with greenish reflections; elegant and soft fragrance, tending to a ripe-fruit fragrance (it enhances the green apple fragrance). Slightly acid taste, tending to a harmonic one, especially in the products with a higher alcoholic content.
It can be drunk after 5/6 months, but it is completely mature after a year. It is not fit for ageing.
Food match
White wine, ideal with sea-courses: shell-fish, raw and cooked molluscs, boiled, fried and roast fish, but also with land and sea starters, with first courses- especially those with no tasty sauces.
It can also be served very cold, as an aperitif.
Its origin and name
Its name derives from nuraghic megalithic buildings, because of the truncated cone-shaped bunch, but also because there are many vinestocks near nuraghi.
Others believe that this species of vine is of Phoenician-Punic origin, due to the fact that the name can be related to the appearance of ripe grapes exposed to the sun (NUR= fire in Semitic language).
Another hypothesis seems more probable: this species of vine may have a wild origin, and it probably derives from “Trebbiano” grapevines, introduced in the area of Valentia by the Romans (near the village of Nuragus, from which the species probably derives its name).
The name “burdu” (hybrid, wild) gives value to this hypothesis: this species of vine is often identified with this name, which is one of its synonyms.
Its diffusion
This species of vine spread during the wine-revival age after the phylloxera outbreak: it started in the Campidano area (Cagliari) during the first decade of the XXth century and increased between the 50s and 80s. In that period, this species reached the record of about 13,000 hectares of extension and about one million hectolitres of wine.
This fact is due to the characteristics of this species of vine, to its adaptability and its resistance to grapevine parasites (provoked by insects and mushrooms).
The Nuragus vineyard has been reduced to 4000/5000 hectares: that reduction has nevertheless brought some positive changes in the vine growing and wine producing system: there has been a selection of the entrepreneurial basis and of the vineyards with the most suitable credentials.
The best Nuragus Wines are generally those obtained from grapes produced in calcareous and marly soils.
It is produced in the provinces of Cagliari and Oristano, and in some communes in the province of Nuoro. Nuragus is at the present time the second white wine as to produce and sales, after the Vermentini (Sardinia and Gallura).
- Other types: Sparkling; Sweet (also Sparkling).