CANNONAU "TERRA PINTATA" DOC Cantina del Bovale

Among the oldest of the Mediterranean

Cannonau is an ancient vine varieties whose origins have been discussed for a long time. It was believed that it appeared in Sardinia around the '400-' 500 with the Spaniards because of the resemblance with their Garnacha Tinta. After the exportation to France, where he was named Grenache, it spread all over the world. There have always been a lot of doubts about its presence in Sardinia by the Spaniards, both for the strong rootedness in the territory that suggest a certain pre-existence and for the discovery of a series of notarial documents of the '200 or the' 300, which show the transfer of ownership of cannonau vines. These hypotheses have been scientifically confirmed by the discovery, in various archaeological sites in Sardinia, of the existence of traces of wine (in particular due to the strong presence of tartaric acid in red wines) in ancient containers and hundreds of grape seeds found in containers, or even small ancient presses to make grapes. These seeds, charred by time but analyzed with modern spectrographs, have allowed us to verify that they belong to a kind of Cannonau similar to the current one, but with substantial differences with the Spanish Granacha. The findings suggest the existence of grapes dating back to about 3,200 years ago that may justify, in that period, an already wide existence of vitis vinifera and wine in Sardinia. Cannonau can therefore be considered an autochthonous Sardinian, Italian and among the oldest in the Mediterranean. In Italy the Cannonau is also called Cannonao, Cannonaddu, Cannonaddu Nieddu, Guarnaccia and Granaccia. These last two denominations can perhaps be attributed to the work done after the unity of Italy by the Savoy, which contributed to the spread of the vine in Italy.