If You Drink Grenache, You Should Be Drinking Cannonau

Cannonau is Grenache. Same grape, different island, a fraction of the fame. If you reach for Grenache, GSM blends, or a bottle of southern Rhône when you want red fruit with a little warmth and grip, Sardinia has been making your wine for centuries and charging less for it.

Here is the short version, because you came for the payoff. Cannonau (say it kah-noh-NOW) is what the Spanish call Garnacha and the French call Grenache. Same vine, genetically. Where it began is a fight nobody has settled. The tidy story has it carried east under the Crown of Aragon, which ruled Sardinia for four centuries. The Sardinians tell it the other way, and point to grape seeds pressed into the island’s Bronze Age soil as proof the vine was theirs first. What is not in dispute is what the island did with it: it kept its Cannonau isolated long enough to grow an accent the mainland lost, an herbal, savory cut that keeps all the ripe fruit honest.

What it tastes like

Think tart raspberry and cherry, then a turn toward the savory: star anise, dried herbs, a menthol lift, and a mineral note the Sardinians will tell you is the granite talking. The good bottles carry real acidity and a firm tannic spine, so the wine has structure under the fruit rather than just sweetness and heat. The lighter, higher-elevation examples can drink like a Cru Beaujolais, pale and lifted, and they take a slight chill well on a warm evening.

It goes with char. Grilled mushrooms, a burger off real coals, lamb, anything with a bit of smoke and fat. This is a table wine in the best sense, built to be drunk with food rather than studied.

The honest part

Two things I owe you. First, Cannonau made cheaply is thin and hollow, the kind of wine that exists to be turned into sangria. Buy with a little care; the difference between a forgettable bottle and a gripping one is real. Second, you are going to read a great deal about Sardinian centenarians and this wine's supposed powers. I am not going there, and neither should you. Drink it because it is good and honest, not because of anything it promises your arteries.

Where it fits

A Cannonau di Sardegna on the label means at least 85% of this grape, often all of it; a Riserva has been aged longer and tends to have more depth. Look for the subzones of Oliena and Jerzu if you want to go deeper, and reach for a producer who farms older vines. Argiolas, Sella & Mosca, and Cardedu are all sound places to start, and widely stocked in the States.

If you already love Agiorgitiko or Frappato, this belongs on the same shelf: Mediterranean reds with generosity and lift, none of them asking Cabernet money.

Where to buy

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— Chris Berry