DOC Red

Santadi Rocca Rubia Carignano del Sulcis Riserva

Cantina Santadi
Grape
Carignano
Denomination
Carignano del Sulcis DOC
Region
Sardinia
ABV
14.5%
Body
Full
Drink
Now to 2035

A Carignano del Sulcis Riserva from Cantina Santadi in south-west Sardinia, aged about a year in small French oak barrels. It smells of blackberry, blueberry, vanilla and myrtle, and the 2023 is full-bodied and velvety at 14.5%.

Best price
£20.90 Save 14%

2023 · 75cl · checked 27 Oct · Delivery usually £16.90, free over £129

Vino.com logo Buy at Vino.com Compare 6 offers
Vintages 2023 2022 2021

Prices read daily from 5 UK retailers. We earn a commission on some links; it never changes the order.

Where to buy Carignano del Sulcis Riserva, Rocca Rubia

£20.90 best price · 4 retailers in stock · checked 28 Oct 2026

Stock is shown where the retailer publishes it, offers are sorted by price, and unavailable offers can’t be clicked.

Vino.com Best price Save 14% 2023 · 75cl · checked 27 Oct · Delivery usually £16.90, free over £129 Code WINE6R8T: £17 off your first wine order with £180 minimum spend, until 13 Jan 2028
Read from the retailer's page once a day. Confidence is low, so treat it as a guide and confirm at the retailer.
£20.90 was regular price £24.30 £27.87/L
Buy
Great Wines Direct Best price 2023 · 75cl · checked 27 Oct · Delivery £7.95, min 6 bottles
Read from the retailer's page once a day. Confidence is low, so treat it as a guide and confirm at the retailer.
£22.79 £30.39/L
Buy
The Great Wine Co. Best price Save 14% 2023 · 75cl · checked 25 Oct · Delivery £8, free on 4 bottles
Read from the retailer's page once a day. Confidence is low, so treat it as a guide and confirm at the retailer.
£25.00 was regular price £29.00 £33.33/L
Buy
Majestic Best price 2023 · 75cl · checked 22 Oct · Delivery £7.95, free on 4 bottles
Read from the retailer's page once a day. Confidence is low, so treat it as a guide and confirm at the retailer.
£27.00 £36.00/L
Buy
Majestic Best price 2022 · 75cl · checked 22 Oct · Delivery £7.95, free on 4 bottles
Read from the retailer's page once a day. Confidence is low, so treat it as a guide and confirm at the retailer.
£27.00 £36.00/L
Buy
Vino.com Best price Save 25% 2021 · Magnum 150cl · checked 27 Oct · Delivery usually £16.90, free on 3 bottles Code WINE6R8T: £17 off your first wine order with £180 minimum spend, until 13 Jan 2028
Read from the retailer's page once a day. Confidence is low, so treat it as a guide and confirm at the retailer.
£52.00 was regular price £69.33 £34.67/L
Buy
Unavailable (1)
XtraWine Best price 2023 · 75cl · checked 28 Oct · Delivery charge shown at checkout
Out of stock
£22.50 £30.00/L
Out of stock

Stock status is read from each retailer’s page once a day and may lag. Case and magnum listings show a per-bottle or per-litre equivalent and sit outside the best-price figure.

Tasting Notes

What Santadi's Rocca Rubia Riserva tastes like

Rocca Rubia is Carignano from mostly loose, sandy and limestone soils in the Sulcis, in south-west Sardinia. Santadi ferments it for about 15 days in steel tanks. It then ages about a year in small French oak barrels and about six months in bottle. The 2023 is 14.5% and unfiltered.

Tasted by
ItalianWines editorial
Tasted on
18 October 2026
Vintage in glass
2023
Source
Drinker consensus · confidence Medium
Body
Full, from the producer's sheet
Typical of Carignano
Tannins Smooth / Grippy
Sweetness Dry / Sweet
Acidity Soft / Crisp
Nose

Intense notes of blackberry and blueberry, with vanilla, myrtle, leather and liquorice. The 2023 is floral too, with violet and lavender, then cherry, ripe raspberry and thyme.

VioletViolet
BlackberryBlackberry
BlueberryBlueberry
TobaccoTobacco
LeatherLeather
OakOak
LiquoriceLiquorice
VanillaVanilla
Palate

Dry and full-bodied, broad and velvety, with great structure. In the 2023 the tannins are silky and the acidity is well blended. Santadi ages it about a year in small French oak barrels, then about six months in bottle.

Finish

Long, with the dark fruit and liquorice staying on. Falstaff, which scored the 2023 93 points, found "a lingering finish".

Overall

Rocca Rubia is the Carignano of Cantina Santadi's Radici line, the co-operative's line for native Sulcis grapes at their most intense. Drinkers across vintages pick out oak, vanilla and tobacco most, and we would open the 2023 now or keep it until 2035.

Drink now Best by 2035
Live UK pricing

Buying Santadi Rocca Rubia in the UK: the 2023, the 2022 and a 2021 magnum

Four shops on this page sell the 2023, from about £19 to £27 a bottle, so it pays to compare. The 2022 costs about £27. The 2021 is sold here only as a 1.5-litre magnum in a wooden box, at £70.

Best price · 75 cl · 2023 £20.90 at Vino.com
Price spread · 75cl · 2023 £20.90 - £27.00 Across 4 UK retailers with 75cl · 2023 in stock
Retailers · 75cl · 2023 4UK 4 in stock
Vintages live 2023 · 2022 · 2021 Current release: 2023
Per-litre (75cl · 2023 basis) £27.87 Lowest current 75cl · 2023 offer
Last checked 27 Oct 2026 Refreshed once every 24 hours
Other vintages and formats: 2 price lines

75cl · 2022: £27.00, 1 UK retailer

Magnum 150cl · 2021: £52.00, 1 UK retailer

Wine fit score

Where Santadi's Rocca Rubia Riserva scores best

Best with food and Best for cellar lead its scores. Santadi matches this full-bodied Carignano with red meat and aged pecorino, and the back label says it will live long.

Best with food 8.6/10

Full-bodied, with silky tannins and well-blended acidity. It suits red meat, game, roast pork and aged pecorino, the matches Santadi itself gives. Its weight and 14.5% alcohol swamp delicate fish and clash with hot chilli.

Best for cellar 7.6/10

A Riserva must age at least two years before sale, at least six months of it in bottle. The back label says the wine will live long, and we would keep the 2023 until 2035.

Best value 7.2/10

The 2023 costs about £19 to £27 depending on the shop, which is mid-priced for a Carignano del Sulcis. That buys a Riserva aged about a year in oak and about six months in bottle, scored 93 by Falstaff.

Best for an occasion 7.0/10

The Carignano of Santadi's Radici line, with 93 points from Falstaff for the 2023. It suits a roast dinner, or a gift for someone who loves big Mediterranean reds.

Best intro to this style 6.4/10

Velvety, with silky tannins, dark fruit and vanilla, it is not a hard wine to like. It is big and oaky at 14.5%, though, so it suits drinkers who already enjoy full-bodied reds.

Best everyday bottle 3.8/10

At about £19 to £27 and 14.5% alcohol, this is a wine for a roast or a weekend dinner rather than a weeknight glass.

Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.

Denomination Compliance Snapshot

Carignano del Sulcis in five fields

A compact view of what the Carignano del Sulcis denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.

Allowed grapes
1 varieties listed
This bottle: Carignano.
Minimum ageing
Recorded by producer
Disciplinare ageing rule not yet recorded.
Region / area
Sardinia
Style
DOC · Carignano del Sulcis
Classification
DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata)
What that means →
Vintages

Rocca Rubia 2023, 2022 and 2021: what each year brought

Falstaff scored the 2023 93 points, the 2022 91 and the 2021 90. In the Sulcis, 2023 had rain in spring and again in August, and no trouble from frost or hail. In Sardinia, 2022 was a dry, hot summer.

2023 Current release
Best price
£20.90
Retailers
4 in stock
ABV
14.5%
Window
Drink now through 2035

In the Sulcis, 2023 brought rain in spring and again in August, and no trouble from frost or hail. Falstaff scored this vintage 93 points, and we would drink it from now until 2035.

2022 Previous release
Best price
£27.00
Retailers
1 in stock
ABV
14.5%

In Sardinia, 2022 was a dry, hot summer, with no rain from late May to mid-August. Falstaff scored the 2022 91 points in October 2025.

2021 Previous release
Best price
£52.00 magnum
Retailers
1 in stock
ABV
14.5%

The 2021 is sold here only as a 1.5-litre magnum in a wooden box. Falstaff scored the 2021 90 points in October 2024.

2023 Current release
Best price
£20.90
Retailers
4 in stock
ABV
14.5%
Window
Drink now through 2035

In the Sulcis, 2023 brought rain in spring and again in August, and no trouble from frost or hail. Falstaff scored this vintage 93 points, and we would drink it from now until 2035.

Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.

The disciplinare, the place, the label

Cantina Santadi: the Sulcis co-operative behind Rocca Rubia

Cantina Santadi began on 24 October 1960, when 27 growers in the Sulcis joined forces. More than 200 members now grow its grapes. The winemaker Giacomo Tachis worked with the co-operative for more than thirty years, and his approach continues today under his protégé Giorgio Marone.

01

DOC, DOCG, IGT: what the badges mean

Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.

Carignano del Sulcis is in the DOC tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.

02

The denomination rules, in detail

  • Allowed grapes. 1 varieties listed in the disciplinare
  • Tasting panel. No mandatory pre-release tasting
03

Region and area context

Carignano del Sulcis falls within Sardinia.

Carignano del Sulcis DOC zone The producer

Made at Cantina Santadi, Santadi. Directions

04

Reading the label

  • Cantina SantadiProducer / estate
  • CarignanoGrape varieties
  • Carignano del Sulcis DOCGeographic indication and quality tier
  • 2023Vintage (year of harvest)
  • 14.5% volAlcohol by volume
  • Imbottigliato all’origineEstate-bottled
05

What sits behind the price of Carignano del Sulcis Riserva, Rocca Rubia

Tracked from
£20.90
Direction
Mostly cost up
Drivers
4 up / 1 down
Main factor
About a year in small French oak barrels, then about six months in bottle
  1. 01

    About a year in small French oak barrels, then about six months in bottle

    Cost up

    In early December Santadi moves the wine into small barrels of fine-grained French oak for about 12 months, then rests it about six months in bottle. Barrels and that cellar time cost more than a red sold young from steel tanks.

  2. 02

    Riserva rules: at least two years of ageing before sale

    Cost up

    A Carignano del Sulcis Riserva must age at least two years from the January after harvest, at least six months of it in bottle. So the 2023 could not go on sale before 2026, and each vintage waits in the cellar meanwhile.

  3. 03

    Grapes picked by hand from early September to mid-October

    Cost up

    The Carignano for Rocca Rubia is picked by hand over about six weeks, from early September to mid-October. Hand picking needs more people and more time than a machine harvest.

  4. 04

    UK duty and VAT on a 14.5% red

    Cost up

    Of a £27 bottle, about £7.80 is tax: £3.33 duty at £30.62 per litre of pure alcohol, and £4.50 VAT.

  5. 05

    A bigger crop allowed than for a Superiore

    Cost down

    As a Riserva, Rocca Rubia may come from up to 11 tonnes of grapes per hectare, against 7.5 for a Superiore such as Santadi's Terre Brune. A bigger permitted crop lets more bottles share the cost of each vineyard.

01

About a year in small French oak barrels, then about six months in bottle

Cost up

In early December Santadi moves the wine into small barrels of fine-grained French oak for about 12 months, then rests it about six months in bottle. Barrels and that cellar time cost more than a red sold young from steel tanks.

Food Pairing

Roast pork, red meat and aged pecorino with Rocca Rubia

Santadi pairs Rocca Rubia with red meat, wild boar, roast suckling pig and aged pecorino. This full-bodied Carignano has silky tannins and the weight for all of them. Keep it away from hot chilli, which makes its 14.5% alcohol taste hotter.

Body matching Strong match

Sardinian roast pork and sausage pasta

Santadi suggests roast suckling pig with this wine. Crisp, fatty pork meets a full-bodied Carignano del Sulcis with silky tannins, and the well-blended acidity stops the fat feeling heavy.

Try with: Porceddu · Porchetta · Malloreddus alla Campidanese · More pairings →

Tannin softening Strong match

Steak and roast lamb

Protein and fat in red meat soften tannin, so this Carignano del Sulcis Riserva feels even smoother. Full-bodied and 14.5%, Rocca Rubia has the weight for a charred steak or a rack of lamb.

Try with: Ribeye steak · Sirloin steak · Rack of lamb · Leg of lamb · More pairings →

Salt balance Good match

Aged pecorino and hard cheese

Salt in aged sheep's cheese softens the tannins and brings the fruit forward. Santadi names aged pecorino among the matches for this velvety Carignano, and a strong hard cheese works the same way.

Try with: Pecorino sardo e pan carasau · Strong cheddar cheese · Lancashire Cheese

Aromatic bridge Good match

Venison, pheasant and other game

Game has a dark, earthy flavour that meets the leather and liquorice in this Carignano del Sulcis. The back label recommends Rocca Rubia with game, and its silky tannins suit lean red meat.

Try with: Venison Stew · Roast Pheasant · Roast Duck · More pairings →

Fat cutting Good match

Slow-cooked beef and rich meat sauces

A long-cooked ragù or braise is rich with meat and fat. The tannin and acidity of a Carignano del Sulcis Riserva cut through it, and the intense dark fruit stands up to a deep, savoury sauce.

Try with: Brasato al Barolo · Ragu alla bolognese · Lasagna · Ossobuco alla Milanese · More pairings →

Avoid Clash

Hot chilli and fiery curries

Chilli heat makes 14.5% alcohol taste hotter, and it turns oak and tannin bitter. Keep this Carignano del Sulcis Riserva for roasts and slow-cooked meat with little heat.

Skip with: Szechuan beef · Crispy chilli beef · Jungle Curry · Red Curry · Pairing guide →

Drinking + cellar

Keeping Rocca Rubia 2023: open now or hold until 2035

The back label says this wine will live long, and the rules make a Riserva age at least two years before sale. We would open the 2023 now or keep it until 2035. It is bottled unfiltered, so a deposit can form.

Drinking window
2026 → 2035

Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.

Serving temperature
16-18°C

Aim for the cooler end on a warm day; warmer end opens up more aromatics.

Cellar potential
High

A Riserva must age at least two years before sale, at least six months of it in bottle. The back label says the wine will live long, and we would keep the 2023 until 2035.

Buy now or wait?
Buy now

£20.90 for a 75cl bottle of the 2023, at Vino.com, is the best price we track, and we have no signal of further discounting.

Sources & trust

Sources behind this Santadi Rocca Rubia page

Prices & stock

Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 27 Oct 2026, 02:47 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.

Confidence · High
Tasting notes

Drawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic. Drinkers score it 4 out of 5 from 27,475 ratings on Vivino.

Confidence · Medium
Appellation rules & ageing

From the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.

Confidence · High
Why it costs what it costs

Our reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.

Confidence · Medium
Drink window & cellar potential

Style guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.

Confidence · Medium
Related

Rocca Rubia, Carignano and the Sulcis: related pages

Producer
Cantina Santadi Sardinia
Grapes
Carignano
Denomination
Carignano del Sulcis DOC
Region
Sardinia Region guide

Common Questions

It is a Carignano del Sulcis Riserva, a full-bodied red made by Cantina Santadi in south-west Sardinia. The co-operative makes it from Carignano grapes picked by hand. It ages about a year in small French oak barrels and about six months in bottle, and the 2023 is 14.5% alcohol.

It smells of blackberry, blueberry, vanilla, myrtle, leather and liquorice. In the mouth it is dry, full-bodied and velvety, with great structure and a long finish. The 2023 adds violet and lavender, and its tannins are silky.

Rocca Rubia is a Riserva, while Terre Brune is a Carignano del Sulcis Superiore, which Santadi calls its highest expression of Carignano. The rules allow a Superiore only from bush-trained vines, with a lower cap on the crop than a Riserva. Both must age at least two years before sale.

Until about 2035. The back label says this wine will live long, and the rules make a Riserva age at least two years before sale. We would open the 2023 now or keep it until 2035. It is bottled unfiltered, so a deposit can form.

Red meat, wild boar, roast suckling pig and aged pecorino are the matches Santadi gives. Steak, roast lamb, game and slow-cooked meat sauces work well too. Avoid hot chilli, which makes the 14.5% alcohol taste hotter.

Four shops on this page sell the 2023, from about £19 to £27 a bottle, so it pays to compare. The 2022 costs about £27, and the 2021 is sold here only as a 1.5-litre magnum, at £70.

You May Also Appreciate

Cantina Santadi Carignano del Sulcis Superiore Terre Brune SAVE -10%

Cantina Santadi Carignano del Sulcis Superiore Terre Brune

Carignano del Sulcis

5 retailers

£41.80

£46.44

+ delivery

View Wine
Grotta Rossa Carignano del Sulcis SAVE -17%

Grotta Rossa Carignano del Sulcis

Carignano del Sulcis

3 retailers

£15.00

£18.00

+ delivery

View Wine
Cantina Mesa Buio Buio Carignano del Sulcis Riserva SAVE -5%

Cantina Mesa Buio Buio Carignano del Sulcis Riserva

Carignano del Sulcis

2 retailers

£27.50

£28.95

+ delivery

View Wine
Carignano del Sulcis DOC Buio Mesa

Carignano del Sulcis DOC Buio Mesa

Carignano del Sulcis

2 retailers

£12.50

+ delivery

View Wine

Affiliate disclosure. Some links above are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Editorial coverage, ratings and tasting notes are written independently and a retailer cannot pay to be listed or to be ranked higher.

How retailer prices are sourced. Prices and stock are read from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Outbound buy links carry rel="nofollow sponsored noopener". The list is sorted by price; we do not accept payment for placement.

What we will never do. Imply we tasted a bottle when we didn’t. Imply stock when a retailer is out. Imply independence on links that are paid affiliate links.

Carignano del Sulcis Riserva, Rocca Rubia
Check Availability