In Japanese culture the Fugu is a famous delicacy that is considered to be very delicious but only eatable by skilled preparation. When we visited the inside countryside of Sardinia we met a very wild land that is dry and stony. It’s a land that need plenty of feeling and handcraft to extract a delicate and harmonious wine. Many of the names in Nuraghi culture that is the origin of Sardinia ends with the word “U” such as Fufu. The winery Gregu is one of these old names of this beautiful region the matches perfectly with this curious fish “FUGU”.
Tenute Gregu Estate lies in the heart of Gallura and is owned by the family Gregu. The young and enthusiastic junior Raffaele is running the winery. The winery consists 25 ha of mainly Vermentino and Cannonau and is purposefully divided into specialized plots. The winery is completely new and perfectly equipped.
Different than the rest of the island the terroir of Gallura is manly dominated by granitic soil. This gives the wine a typical mineralise flavour and structure.
Gallura
Is Sardinia's only DOCG appellation, and covers white Vermentino-based wines from a large area at the northern end of the island. The title held DOC status from 1975 until September 1996, when it became the island's first DOCG
Covering the north-eastern corner of Sardinia, the catchment area for the DOCG is surprisingly large (several times bigger than those of Alghero, Vernaccia di Oristano and Malvasia di Bosa combined). It corresponds roughly to the province of Olbia-Tempio, which itself corresponds roughly to the historical Gallura region (the Gallurese dialect is still spoken there today). In the west, its southern boundary traces the path of the Coghinas river, then veers north slightly around the Monti di Ala hills before reaching the east coast near Posada.
- by end of September the harvest starts in the early morning and ends by mid-day
- All grapes are handpicked and gently stored in little boxes
- These boxes are immediately stored in a cooled container just next to the vineyards
- The fruit is cooled to the centre below 7C° to avoid any kind of fermentation or oxidation
Winemaking
- The cooled and preselected grapes arrive to the winery and are processed onto a selection table where all kind of unripe or overripe fruits are removed
- The cold and clean grapes are move immediately into the press and reach the stainless-steel tanks for the cool maceration
- Approximately in February the wine is bottled and ready for the market
Summary:
The 2 most important elements that define the quality and style of “FUGU”:
a. 100% Temperature control: only harvesting in the morning / stored in a cooled Containers
b. Strong selection by hand
Wine Description’s
FUGU
