Su chi no'seu 2014

Grape variety: Barbera, Ciliegiolo, Montepulciano

Gianfranco Manca from the winery Panevino in Sardinia, is one of the most extraordinary vignerons, “Vignaioli”, that I have had the pleasure of acquainting with. His feel of terroir, place of wine expression and artistic freedom are thrilling.

Nevertheless, the two wines that we are featuring are from the vintage 2014. I had the pleasure of visiting Gianfranco for the first time in September of 2014 and it was a shocking visit because just a few weeks prior, hailstorms had devastated everything everywhere, and when we arrived in the beautiful beginning of Autumn in his part of Sardinia, we felt that we had entered a nuclear Winter: there were no leaves left on the vines, everything was grey, beaten and basically in that vintage Gianfranco had salvaged the maybe 5/10% of grapes, than have been left over, and had created, very unusually for him, only one white and one red, so both the white and the red were a blend of basically of anything and everything that somehow had slightly survived this nuclear war.

That is the expression that comes out in the white “Alvas” and in the red “Su chi no’seu”. Those of you who have followed his wines over the years, will recall that his red wine by this name has a name which is slightly different: it is called “Su chi seu”, which in the Sardinian dialect means “That which I am”.

In 2014 he was so devastated by what had happened, that he called it “That which I am not”. So for all of you out there, who are curious, driven by passion, I can warmly recommend that you try both wines, but please take them with the expression of this violated natural deed of the vintage 2014.

The “Su chi no’seu” refermented in the bottle which is, I think a little bit of what Gianfranco had actually intended, making very light and short maceration, also with whole bunch, where he left a lot of carbonic maceration, so that the vintage which did not give the chance for a lot of terroir depths, would come out with some salvation of some fun fruit left over. Also so that you know that this is, in the beginning after opening, slightly on the “frizzante” side. Enjoy.