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Sardinia (Sardegna), 125 miles off the Italian mainland, is remote and insular, and — thanks to long Spanish rule — several of its grapes are Spanish in origin: cannonau (the same as Spain's garnacha), carignano (cariñena/carignan) and the ancient girò.

Cannonau, planted all over the island, is Sardinia's most important red — a bold, dry, spicy wine with chaparral and dried-herb flavours evocative of the parched island itself (terrific alone, sometimes blended, as in Sella & Mosca's Tanca Farra with cabernet).

Girò makes an interesting Portlike wine near Cagliari, and carignano a decent, earthy red in the far-southern Sulcis.