Monday 11 September 

The journey from Andover on the 12.38 to the 16.55 Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Olbia couldn’t have gone more smoothly.

This was a huge contrast to the journey to Brighton we’d made two days earlier (on the hottest September day ever recorded) to see Jez and Emma, and briefly Helena, Paul and Laurie. Those trains were heaving; thousands flooded into and out of Brighton, and on the return journey the Richmond loop was in operation to enable ‘rail improvements’. It was mercifully quiet though, and the air con worked; in all we had spent seven and a half hours on trains; and arrived home at 23.00.

Back to Sardinia! David was researching for the WSET and I was riding shotgun. 

We added a few days for us to have some holiday as the last few months had been relentlessly hectic and intense: not only for me dealing with Andrew’s convoluted estate, but for David proof-reading and book launches and birthdays, and a series of interviews for the other half of the WSET job, now he’s down to two days a week.

Laura is i/c the promotional instagram account and David is busy negotiating a series of Piemontese visits which we hope will drum up interest, and alerting every known contact. It is certainly not dull! 

We stayed in the Olbia City hotel on the Viale Aldo Moro, for a couple of nights to visit wineries in this north east corner producing Vermentino di Gallura. The forecast is for continuous sunshine, around 30 deg C, and no rain. It will be dry heat, I hope, unlike the humidity of the last days in the UK.

Tuesday 12 September 

The hotel is pretty basic and to the north of Olbia, (whose write up in the Rough Guide is not particularly flattering). The city’s main charm is the large harbour and seafront, though packed with tourists seeking supper after a day on a beach. The Costa Smeralda is close by; developed to be exclusive in the 60s and 70s, served by a private airport, though I doubt many of its visitors will dine in Olbia! It is a tourist resort for Italians nonetheless. 

We drove inland to the Cantina Sociale del Vermentino at Monti to meet Franco Pirastru the commercial manager, who showed us round this huge plant with its 300 members bringing grapes from 600 hectares. He summoned the agronomist who filled us in on this difficult summer with temperatures of 49deg C in mid July. Astonishingly, the grapes that survived are good if small, so they expect quality if not quantity this year. We tasted in the shop while several people arrived with their plastic demi-john equivalents for the sfuso; we tasted six wines from the enomatic machine – of which three at least we either corked or very tired. The shop manager clearly has no interest in their well-being! 

Today has only two tastings! The other is at 17.00 so we took Franco’s advice and drove to the belvedere just above Monti where we met the local fire service meeting for their lunch, brought by them in cool boxes, and eaten graciously at the plastic table they set up in the shade. Un tavolo in ordine!

We ate at La Pineta just below the belvedere where the menus were all set, terra o mare, and opted for fish. Far too much, inevitably; plates of prawns, (cold shelled, and large pre-grilled in their shells); salmon and monkfish staters, followed by spaghetti with small clams for me, and grilled octopus for David. The pannacotta was too much! 

We drove to the ancient Nuralghic tombs, formerly under a tumulus known as Tombe dei Giganti close to Loiri and five minutes from our next appointment. This was the work of a bronze age community whose settlements spanned Sardinia and who lived harmoniously alongside the colonising Phoenicians until the arrival and conquest by Carthaginians and later the Romans. 

From there I drove to Tenute Ólbios, close by, with its fine views of the tower islands, the airport and the sea. Daniele’s vineyards are 10 metres above sea level; the winery is built, as all the historic buildings were, on an outcrop of granite, twenty metres above. The buildings’ history is medieval; now she has turned them into a popular social spot where the informed go for tastings and aperitivi.

Daniele showed us the cellar and plant; the granite and the closeness of the sea makes the sub soil especially rich. She practises ‘integrated’ wine-making, and her commitment to Vermentino di Gallura is phenomenal: aged, late-harvested, sparkling. The tasting was graced by a delightful aperitivi plate and fine views from her tasting room. She has been president of the consorzio for 13 years. We met her daughter who at 19 will be starting a science degree at Sasserie University; a five year course. We were the last to leave! 

We drove into Olbia, parked conveniently near the closed archeological museum, by the busy Marina, and after a prolonged search through the crowded pedestrianised streets for a restaurant we fancied (and which had space for us) enjoyed a one course supper, before returning to the City hotel. 

Wednesday 13 September 

We drove north west to Vigne Surrau at Arzachena to meet Mariolino Siddi (enologo) and Fabio Isoni (agronomo) who were in the throes of processing the harvest, but still made time to show us round, to explain in detail, and to help us taste their wines. The automatic sorting table was a revelation; the ripe berries ‘shook’ off and fell through the spaces while the small, unripe or damaged grapes remained on the conveyor belt with the raspi and were dispensed with. 

Hospitality is so important to a region now with tourism as its major industry, and all the wineries we visited were gearing up for visitors. Cork is still harvested here and remains an important part of the local economy, though one wonders for how much longer! 

We were due at Capichera in the middle of the afternoon. This was a strange experience overall. David had asked for a professional visit with the eneologist or agronomist, but Anna who greeted us in her golf buggy simply ignored this and talked about the origins of this ‘elite’ winery.  It was a family business taken over by plutocrats keen to enhance further the reputation of the Costa Smeralda and its hinterland: to become another facet of this playground of the rich and probably infamous. We both looked on blankly at the mention of the Aga Khan… The winery itself was out of bounds as refurb work is underway, though the original winemaker has been retained; we were hosted in one of the outdoor ‘rooms’ mainly designed to maintain their guests’ privacy, at the end of our buggy ride.

It took a while to drive back through Olbia and on to Orosei where we had opted to break the journey to the next region, and we were tired. It was a perfectly sensible choice, but we had not reckoned with the appallingly narrow vicole in the very last stage of the drive. Note for the future: the only way to access Hotel Gli Ulivi is from Via John F and Robert Kennedy NOT from the road into Orosei from the North.

Compounding this torment was the absence of Sergio from Reception, despite an earlier Booking message telling us that it would be open until 21.30… The ‘smart’ way to check-in involved using the lift and entering the building on the first floor, despite the locked entrance, as he told me when I rang the emergency number. (A prolonged whatsapp exchange followed two days later when Sergio caught up with my Booking feedback. He was not best pleased with a 4!)  

We ate modestly in a very civilised if slow ristorante in the old town below, the old streets used as tourist malls making for traffic chaos in other parts of the town, before falling into bed, wrung out and grumpy. 

Thursday 14 September

The room itself was comfortable; the breakfast and the pleasant young woman in charge were fine. We stayed at the hotel for the morning, and while I wrote a polite note to the manager to protest at the reception arrangements, David popped to the Coop for some vinegar – yes, vinegar (the secret ingredient of the Glucose Goddess’ cure for glucose spikes)

At midday we left the scruffy car park and headed for Marmoiada near Nuoro, an hour away. I drove on these quiet winding roads through menacing granite hills and mountains covered either by macchie or parched and burned brown grass. 

Giovanni Montisci of Barrosu greeted us warmly, and after a brief explanation of his small cantina, took us into their home to taste, and to meet his wife Simonetta who in her words is in charge of the bureaucrazia, while Giovanni makes the wines which until 2015 were sold as sfuso. They were delightful, and I was particularly moved by the labels: Mattìo the late grandfather; Simone a late uncle.

It had been difficult to sort out the timings for today, as both wineries were in the throes of the actual harvest, but after a courteous welcome by Giovanni, we were startled by how difficult it was to connect with Francesco Cadinu. 

His winery is at his house, and not immediately visible. Eventually his wife appeared, and though polite told us firmly we had been expected earlier.  She disappeared and left us to the mercies of a monosyllabic Francesco. The vendemmia was dreadful, the yield likewise; he was every bit as contrary as Walter Masser or Claudio Marrioto in the colle tortonese. It was hard to extract information. His only smile came when he described his daughters’ University achievements. 

A pattern of one fantastic, one disappointing tasting each day seemed to be emerging!

We drove away hoping that the B&B Le Due Isole in Nuoro was easy to locate, and without the grief of yesterday! Sardinia has some way to go before the travels of tourists become straight forward. The island is not small, and the granite landscapes of the north are severe.

In fact we succeeded, despite tea time traffic, one-way systems and poor signage, and our host was business-like and helpful, recommending supper and free parking – though we had more keys than we knew what to do with! The room was comfortable; solid and traditional; we slept well.

We ate at a recommended traditional ristorante, where a hearty waiter insisting on speaking English, and the lengthy wait grated because we were tired; but the food here and more generally was pretty good with many fish dishes. All the bigger towns we have visited have an abundance of young people, plenty of eating out and quite lively night life. We have yet to attempt any beaches!