Cantina Santadi is a cooperative winery on the south-west coast of Sardinia, founded in 1960 by twenty-seven Sulcis growers. The estate is best known for Carignano del Sulcis, the dark, mineral red drawn from sandy, ungrafted vineyards near the sea, and for the iconic Terre Brune that lifted the Sulcis onto the international stage. Bottlings of Vermentino di Sardegna, Cannonau di Sardegna and Monica di Sardegna round out a Sardinian range that pairs Mediterranean fruit with the salty cut of vineyards within sight of Porto Pino.
Sardinia
Visit experiences, curated by our editors. Enquire with the winery where booking details are not published.
A guided walk through the Santadi production area and the barrel cellar, followed by a seated tasting of Cantina Santadi wines paired with local Sardinian products. Visits are arranged in advance with the cellar at [email protected]. Visiting hours are Monday to Saturday, 10:30 to 16:00.
EnquireA guided walk through the Santadi production area and the barrel cellar, followed by a seated tasting of Cantina Santadi wines paired with local Sardinian products. Visits are arranged in advance with the cellar at [email protected]. Visiting hours are Monday to Saturday, 10:30 to 16:00.
EnquireThe cooperative was founded on 24 October 1960, when twenty-seven viticoltori signed the founding act in Cagliari before the notary Francesco Vacca. The driving force was Antioco "Peppino" Sais, the first elected mayor of Santadi after the war, who saw a future for Sulcis growers in shared vinification rather than bulk grape sales.
The cellar's reputation took its modern shape from the late 1970s under the long-running presidency of Antonello Pilloni, who steered Santadi from bulk wine to bottled production sold in more than forty countries. The consulting oenologist Giacomo Tachis, already known for the Tuscan reference reds Sassicaia and Tignanello, joined the project in the early 1980s and helped sharpen a house style around the Sulcis Carignano. The cellar's address on Via Giacomo Tachis 14 carries his name.
The Sulcis sits at the south-west tip of Sardinia, between the dunes of Porto Pino and the iron-rich hills of the old mining country. Sandy soils, sea wind and mineral light shape the wines. The same sand explains why so many of Santadi's Carignano vines are still on their original ungrafted rootstocks, the rare piede franco that survived the phylloxera that wiped out most of European viticulture. Bush-trained alberello vines, often a century old, produce grapes that Tachis himself praised for polyphenol concentration, silky tannins and mineral expression.
The portfolio runs across a wide Sardinian palette. The Origini line bottles Carignano del Sulcis (Grotta Rossa), Vermentino di Sardegna (Villa Solais), Cannonau di Sardegna (Pani Loriga), Monica di Sardegna (Antigua) and Nuragus di Cagliari (Pedraia) in a varietal style with light cellar work. The Radici line, including Rocca Rubia Carignano del Sulcis Riserva and the Cala Silente Vermentino, leans into selection and longer ageing. Above them sits Terre Brune, the Carignano del Sulcis Superiore DOC that put the appellation onto the international critics' radar and remains one of the most-cited Sardinian reds in the wine press.
Two Santadi labels are currently featured on italianwines.co.uk: Villa Solais Vermentino di Sardegna and Rocca Rubia Carignano del Sulcis Riserva, the cooperative's two most distributed wines in the UK market.
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Plate I · SARDINIA
Cantina Santadi's current bottle selection is easiest to understand through Vermentino.
11 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Walk-ins welcome 
