- Grapes
- Carignano, Bovale
- Denomination
- Isola dei Nuraghi IGT
- Region
- Sardinia
- ABV
- 14.5%
- Body
- Medium to full
- Drink
- Now–2041
Sardinia's benchmark red: old-vine Cannonau with Carignano, Bovale and Malvasia Nera from the Turriga vineyard, shaped with Giacomo Tachis. Two years in French barriques; powerful, herb-laced, built to cellar. The 2021 swept Italy's guides.
Prices read daily from 3 UK retailers. We earn a commission on some links; it never changes the order.
Where to buy Turriga
Stock is shown where the retailer publishes it, offers are sorted by price, and unavailable offers can’t be clicked.
No current retailer offer matches that combination.
Stock status is read from each retailer’s page once a day and may lag.
Tasting notes for Argiolas Turriga 2021
Built from James Suckling's release note, the producer's own scheda and the taste summary of Vivino's 18,000-strong crowd. Argiolas talks about a very high 'souplesse' index; young Turriga still wants a decant.
- Tasted by
- ItalianWines editorial (drinker consensus)
- Tasted on
- 4 August 2026
- Vintage in glass
- 2021
- Source
- Drinker consensus · confidence Medium
- Taste profile
The 2021 opens on blackcurrant and black cherry wrapped in the bark, graphite and milk chocolate James Suckling logged at release. Vivino's crowd points the same way: oak, tobacco and vanilla lead its taste summary with 513 mentions, layered over Mediterranean scrub and dark fruit.
Full-bodied at 14.5%, dense and tightly wound in youth, the product of 16 to 18 day macerations with delestage in steel. The calcareous, rocky Turriga vineyard, gobelet-trained since 1970, keeps the acidity precise, so plum and blackberry stay fresh under the firm tannic frame.
Long and persistent in the house's high-souplesse style, closing on liquorice and roasted coffee over the lightly toasted note Suckling found on the 2021.
This is the wine La Repubblica said 'cleared Sardinian red wine through customs': Argiolas's flagship, rated 4.4 from nearly 18,000 Vivino reviews. Decant the 2021 now or cellar it into the 2030s; it sits at the very top of the estate's range.
Where to buy Turriga in the UK
Two merchants list the 2021 at £98.50 to £101 for 75cl. With production around 40,000 to 50,000 bottles and a full guide sweep behind this vintage, allocations do not linger.
How Turriga scores on the Italian Wine Fit Score
Turriga profiles as a cellar and occasion wine: 14.5%, firm tannin, £98.50 upwards. It scores low for beginners and weeknights, high for patience and the big table.
Sardinia's most decorated red: Tre Bicchieri, 5 Grappoli and Veronelli's Stella Polare for the 2021, an icon pedigree running back to 1988, and a price that marks the occasion itself.
Isola dei Nuraghi IGT mandates no ageing, but the wine delivers it anyway: 24 months in French barriques, a further year in bottle, and Vinous retrospectives showing vintages back to 1988 still alive; drink the 2021 from 2026 to about 2041.
Built for the table but only the big end of it: firm tannin and 14.5% body need game, char-grilled beef, roast lamb or aged pecorino, not delicate or spicy plates.
No category price aggregate exists, so judged editorially: £98.50 to £101 buys Sardinia's icon with a 2021 guide sweep, well under fellow Tachis icons like Sassicaia at roughly twice the price, but far above £25 to £40 Cannonau riservas.
A tightly wound, tannic 14.5% blend that needs decanting and cellar patience at around £100; start with Argiolas's Costamolino or a Cannonau di Sardegna before this.
The inverse of its cellar score: a £98.50 to £101 single-vineyard flagship made in about 40,000 to 50,000 bottles is an event wine, not a Tuesday pour.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.
Isola dei Nuraghi in five fields
A compact view of what the Isola dei Nuraghi denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
Turriga 2021: a guide-sweep vintage
Gambero Rosso gave the 2021 Tre Bicchieri, Bibenda 5 Grappoli, and Veronelli 97 points with its Stella Polare. James Suckling calls it drinkable now, best from 2026.
- Lowest price
- £94.00
- Retailers
- 3 in stock
- ABV
- 14.5%
- Window
- Drink now through 2041
A guide-sweep year for Turriga: Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri, Bibenda 5 Grappoli and 97 points with the Stella Polare in Veronelli's 2026 guide. James Suckling rates the 2021 drinkable now but best from 2026; expect it to reward cellaring into the 2030s.
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.
Perfect Pairings
Dishes that go with this wine
What to eat with Turriga
Argiolas's own list runs wild boar stew, furred game, spiced red meats and aged pecorino sardo; Vivino's crowd adds beef, lamb and pasta. The cards below explain the structure behind each match.
Slow-cooked game and wild boar
Argiolas's own pairing list starts with cinghiale in umido, wild boar stew. Long braising melts collagen into the sauce, and that gelatine-rich fat softens Turriga's dense, tightly wound tannins while the wine's dark fruit meets the sweetness of slow-cooked meat.
Try with: Venison Stew · Agnello Ragu Lucano · Porchetta · More pairings →
Char-grilled beef: bistecca and ribeye
James Suckling notes the 2021's long, refreshing, precise acidity. With firm tannin behind it, that acidity scrubs seared beef fat from the palate between bites, which is why a Cannonau-led red and bistecca alla fiorentina work so well together.
Try with: Fiorentina steak · Ribeye steak · Steak · More pairings →
Roast lamb, rare to slow-cooked
Lamb is one of the three foods Vivino's crowd pairs with Turriga most. A 14.5% full-bodied blend with ripe black fruit has the weight to match roast lamb's richness, and the wine's Mediterranean herb streak echoes rosemary and thyme in the pan.
Try with: Roast Lamb with Mint Sauce · Leg of lamb · Rack of lamb · Lamb shank · More pairings →
Aged pecorino sardo
The producer's list ends with pecorino sardo stagionato for a reason: the cheese's salt and savoury crystals balance Turriga's ripe 14.5% fruit, while its fat cushions the tannin. A wedge with pane carasau is the island's own way to finish the bottle.
Try with: Pecorino sardo e pan carasau · Cheese board · mature farmhouse cheddar
Porcini and earthy mushroom dishes
Winebow's producer sheet singles out roasted wild mushrooms, and Vivino drinkers log 261 mentions of earthy notes: leather, smoke, forest floor. Those shared savoury aromatics bridge the wine to porcini risotto and mushroom-laced braises.
Try with: Porcini mushroom risotto · Beef wellington · Beef stew
Chilli heat and delicate seafood
At 14.5% with dense tannin, Turriga amplifies capsaicin burn, so hot dishes turn harsh and alcoholic. The same tannin reads metallic against briny oysters and delicate white fish. Pour a Vermentino di Sardegna for those tables and keep Turriga for the meat.
Skip with: Szechuan beef · Lamb bhuna · oysters · grilled sea bass · Pairing guide →
Cellaring Turriga: a record from 1988
Vinous has twice retasted Turriga back to its 1988 first vintage and found the early releases alive and well. Bank on 15 to 20 years for the 2021: James Suckling says best from 2026, and the estate releases each vintage only after three years of oak and bottle age.
Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
Isola dei Nuraghi IGT mandates no ageing, but the wine delivers it anyway: 24 months in French barriques, a further year in bottle, and Vinous retrospectives showing vintages back to 1988 still alive; drink the 2021 from 2026 to about 2041.
£94.00 is the lowest tracked offer for the current vintage and we have no signal of further discounting.
Sources behind this Turriga page
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 13 Sep 2026, 01:22 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino and Wine-Searcher, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur 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 · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumTurriga's place in Sardinian wine
Common Questions
Turriga is the flagship red of Argiolas, the family winery founded in 1938 in Serdiana, southern Sardinia. Created with consulting oenologist Giacomo Tachis, its first vintage was 1988, and it is widely treated as Sardinia's benchmark red wine.
Turriga is 85% Cannonau with 5% each of Carignano, Bovale Sardo and Malvasia Nera, all Sardinian varieties grown on the calcareous, rocky Turriga vineyard between Senorbi and Selegas in the Trexenta hills.
Isola dei Nuraghi IGT covers the whole of Sardinia and allows any blend of the island's authorised grapes, so Argiolas and Giacomo Tachis could join Cannonau with Carignano, Bovale Sardo and Malvasia Nera in proportions no DOC of the time permitted. The IGT label reflects blending freedom, not lower quality.
Drink the 2021 from 2026 to around 2041. James Suckling calls it best from 2026, and Vinous retrospectives back to the 1988 first vintage show Turriga drinking well past twenty years. Decant a young bottle for an hour or two.
UK merchants currently list the 2021 vintage at £98.50 to £101 per 75cl bottle. Production is only around 40,000 to 50,000 bottles a year, so top-rated vintages like 2021 can sell through quickly.
Argiolas itself recommends wild boar stew, furred game, spiced red meats and aged pecorino sardo. Its full body and firm tannins also suit char-grilled beef such as bistecca alla fiorentina, roast lamb and porcini mushroom dishes.
You May Also Appreciate
6 retailers
Agricola Punica Barrua
Isola dei Nuraghi
6 retailers
£29.63
3 retailers
Isola dei Nuraghi IGT 'Assaje''
Isola dei Nuraghi
3 retailers
£37.00
2 retailers
Isola dei Nuraghi IGT Montessu Agripunica Punica
Isola dei Nuraghi
2 retailers
£19.50
2 retailers
Isola dei Nurachi Turriga Argiolas
Isola dei Nuraghi
2 retailers
£97.90
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.
