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{ SOMMjournal.com } 59 THE WINES Cliff Rames and Meridith May provide tasting notes for Cantina Mesa wines. The entry-level white Primo Bianco ($16) is a Bianco Vermentino di Sardegna DOC partially macerated at a low temperature for 10–12 hours, fermented between 53–57 degrees Fahrenheit, and briey matured in stainless-steel tanks and in bottle for at least two months before release. Straw-yellow and snappy, this delicately aromatic, unoaked white offers up notes of white owers, Mediterranean citrus, and freshly picked apri - cots. Soft acids lend elegance to the mouthfeel as vibrancy and tartness give lift to the zesty yellow-fruit avors and savory mineral notes. A great- value island wine! —Cliff Rames The entry-level red Primo Scuro ($16) is a stainless steel–matured Rosso Cannonau di Sardegna DOC with a pungent nose and intense avors of fruit with oral undertones. This is an exemplary version of Can - nonau, Sardinia's signature red variety. Despite a luminous ruby color, this supple yet spirited wine is precocious and punchy. It packs lots of sour-cherry, pomegranate, red-plum, and spicy Mediterranean-herb avors that fortify the paradoxically rened and juicy mouthfeel, so soothing with its warm, persistent vinous glow and lingering, savory red-fruit notes. —C.R. Giunco ($22) is a Bianco Vermentino di Sardegna DOC grown in alluvial deposits and hardened eolian (wind-eroded) sandstone with moderate clay content. The structured, sub- alkaline soils are marked by the presence of stones and high levels of calcium, magnesium, and potassium. If the Sardinian sun could liquify, it would be the color of this wine. Several golden hues deeper than the Primo, the nose is richer, too—complex and exotically perfumed with jasmine, mango, apricot, and chalk. Embedded in the generous, almost oily mouthfeel are piquant avors of ripe pineapple, grapefruit pith, white peach, and a thread of sea salt minerality, all of which persist like the warmth of a summer day at Spiaggia della Dune. —C.R. Unoaked to showcase the fruit, Buio ($22) hails from the Carignano del Sulcis DOC. This Mediterranean climate of this zone is characterized by limited rainfall distributed irregularly during the course of the year and concentrated almost entirely in autumn and winter, as well as by frequent northwest winds; high spring and summer temperatures, meanwhile, give way to mildness and dry cold in autumn and winter. An expressive blackberry nose imparts a hint of mocha. On the palate, acidity goes into high gear, lighting up blue/black and ripe red fruit. With medium-weight, it's blessed by a dot of pepper and a string of minerality. The nish, reminiscent of pickled-plum liqueur, is mouthwatering. —Meri - dith May Cantina Mesa's agship wine, Buio Buio ($42) is a Carignano del Sulcis DOC from ungrafted bush-trained vines. It delivers ripe, mouth-lling avors of red-berry fruit with savory-spicy highlights, making it ideal for pairing with roasted meats. This Carignano bursts with wild-cherry and dark-berry aromas with hints of balsamic, Mediterranean scrub brush, rose hip, and warm spice. The palate is silky yet structured, the tannins rened and plush, the clove-kissed plum notes bright and juicy, and the sandstone and sandy-loam terroir manifest - ed by dark, earthy notes on a graceful, sustained oral nish. —C.R. Cantina Mesa at La Ciccia, San Francisco After 13 years in the wine industry as both a sales rep and a sommelier, Chef Massimiliano Conti opened charming Sardinian restaurant La Ciccia in San Francisco with his wife, Lorella Degan, in 1996. La Ciccia (the name means "baby fat") struck a chord with Bay Area foodies seeking authentic re - gional Italian dishes, listed on the menu in Sardinian: Prupisceddu in umidu cun tomatiga is baby octopus stew in a spicy tomato sauce, while the malloreddus a sa campidanese are semolina gnochetti with pork sugo and Sardinia's famed cheese, Pecorino Sardo DOP. The Giunco Vermentino di Sardegna on the list, meanwhile, makes a stunning match for La Cic - cia's fregua cun su nieddu de seppia (Sardinian fregola pasta with seafood, citrus zest, and squid ink). Except for a few Champagne offerings, the wine list is all-Italian with a heavy emphasis on the wines of Chef Conti's native Sardinia. Although originally from Padua in the Veneto, Degan speaks with pas - sion about Sardinian wine, having been there many times with Conti. "Some people think that it was the Spaniards of Aragon who brought Cannonau to Sardinia," she says, but she is of the rm opinion that the grape originated on the island and was later spread to other parts of Europe. "Cannonau was already there," she states with authority. The winery's two Carignano del Sulcis DOC wines—Buio and Buio Buio—can both be found on the list at La Ciccia, as well. (According to the couple, "Buio means dark, so Buio Buio means very dark.") Degan notes the salinity and minerality of both wines, which hail from the southwestern corner of the island. Carignano del Sulcis with Chef Conti's pezza de angioni a sa saba (seared lamb tenderloin drizzled with grape-must reduction) is the perfect Sardinian immersion experience, making La Ciccia a destination restaurant like no other on this side of the Atlantic. Cantina Mesa's two Carignano del Sulcis DOC wines, Buio Buio and Buio, at La Ciccia in San Francisco. CAMPAIGN FINANCED ACCORDING TO (EU) REGULATION NO. 1308/2013