2021 Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino de Sardegna 750 ml

“We used to pour this at Oenotri!” our Master Sommelier, Sur Lucero, said as we passed the 2021 Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino de Sardegna around the tasting table. “For sheer quality-to-price ratio, you can’t beat it.” 

Sardinian Vermentino is one of the great undersung white wines in the world, and Argiolas’ 2021 Costamolino is one of the island’s standard-bearing bottles. Crisp, mouthwatering, and succulent, packed with stone fruit and orange zest, it’s the perfect summertime white—and the kind of infinitely versatile wine to pair with everything from grilled halibut to hamachi crudo with salsa verde. 

Decanter’s Andrew Jefford mused that Sardinia might produce the greatest Vermentino in the world. It’s a grape stuffed to the gills with character, and you’ll find it all over Europe. According to Italian wine guru Ian d’Agata, in Italy alone 50 different Vermentino wines are produced, bearing a dizzying array of local names and made in 22 DOCs and one DOCG. 

But in Sardinia, it’s something special.

The island’s climate results in a gloriously crisp take on the grape. Transposed between continents, Sardinia is a place where beauty arises from a meeting of extremes. Picture ocean-sprayed, rocky coasts and long, flat plains, plus hot southern winds from Africa that collide with cool gusts funneling down from France. 

In their corner of the Trexenta hills north of Cagliari on the southern end of Sardinia, the Argiolas family has been making quality wines in this windswept terroir since the 1930s. Grapes from their 30 to 40-year old vines receive a careful upbringing in stainless steel to capture the intense aromatics. 

This a thoroughly enticing benchmark bottle that promotes porch and patio sipping all summer long.