Cardedu ‘Bucce’ Bianco Sardegna NV - $26.99
STORY
Mediterranean wines have become the darlings of the wine world. The wines are deeply representative of each island’s culture and history. Corisca’s salty and juicy rosés are summertime staples. Sicily’s Mount Etna can produce whites that can achieve the heights of white Burgundy. But, Sardinia seems to represent something altogether different. The people are harder to define - their wines even seem to share these traits. The hot sun beats down on the Island which translates into wines of raw power, but there is also a delicacy here. It’s that balance of power and finesse. This month’s Sauvage is an exploration of this hard to pin down island.
HOW TO
Cardedu (car-DAY-do) is headed by 4th generation Sardinian Sergio Loi – but his family has been farming the land since the early 900s. These are natural wines by tradition and by necessity. The island was subject to such extreme poverty and such an unforgiving landscape that modernization only reached the island in highly limited aspects. ‘Bucce’ meaning skins is so named because this blend of Vermentino and Nasco is left to ferment on the skins for two nights while the Cannonau is harvested a few weeks later, quickly pressed with a few hours on the skins, and then the two tanks are blended and left to mature in giant cement tanks for a minimum of 6 months. Undeniably born from its landscape with a sunset orange hue in the glass, sea spray, white flowers, and dried herbs.
TUNES FOR YOUR JUICE
by Liza Morgioni
Friday Morning is a song that reminds me of soft morning light rising up to warm the earth. In the depths of winter, ground covered in snow, it just may be the most gratifying time to experience that moment. Though we are not situated on the coast of sunlit Sardinia, Cardedu’s ‘Bucce’ Bianca helps make our precious few sunny February moments all the more sweet. In the song, she sings dreamily: “you are pretty colors; find you in the morning”.
Sardinia is known for feeling “lost in time”, and Cardedu thoughtfully evokes Sardinian tradition in each bottle. Friday Morning is the first love song Khruangbin ever wrote. Pulling inspiration from her past, their bassist reads old love letters faintly on the track. She explains in one interview: “All I can say is keep that stuff. People are inclined to rid themselves of old memories. Put it in a box and hide it for a while.”
This cheery bottle has everything that we love about orange wine, plus some. The balance of bright fruit, cleansing herbaceousness, and funk make your Bucce Bianco perfect for enjoying in some sunshine, if you can find it. Or, simply let it bring the sun to you on a gray day. Pack it and some folding chairs in the car on your next Bluebird Day, and you’ll have the makings of a parking lot apres-ski-hangout for the books.