Cantina Santa Maria La Palma

Our History

It all began in 1946, in the Nurra area, which had been reclaimed and given to the farmworkers following the Agrarian Reform that was implemented in Sardinia in the immediate post-war period. The locals were blessed with skilled, courageous hands that had the capacity to capture the soul of a part of the island that seems to have been designed for winemaking. And so, in 1959, one hundred of them decided to enter into a co-operative and to found the Cantina Santa Maria la Palma (Santa Maria la Palma Winery).

Today, past and future are being combined seamlessly through the new technologies deployed in every project put together by the Winery, which can leverage a tradition that has always married innovation to love for the local soil.

700 hectares of land on the estate are under vine, giving rise to a wealth of highly nuanced Sardinian wines, all made with the same passion and dedication as always, while also taking advantage of everything that state-of-the-art technology has to offer.

The dedication to quality is the thread that runs throughout our history: selecting methods and techniques to produce the finest grapes, enhancing and protecting the soil – all with a view to exceeding our consumers’ expectations and to being worthy inheritors of this noble tradition that we are carrying forward.

THE VINEYARDS OF THE GULF OF ALGHERO

Seven hundred hectares, located in what is widely regarded as one of the finest  winegrowing areas in Sardinia; here, the rolling hills and endless plains facing out to sea are home to the vineyards of the Santa Maria La Palma winery, in a part of the island that boasts enviable paedo-climatic conditions.

It is here that the mild temperatures and the exposure to the winds blowing in from the coast have combined to create an environment that favours the production of high quality wines – wines that are the perfect embodiment of the terroir.

In the vineyards, the winery’s growers leveraged their expertise to select the varieties best suited to the features of the estates. Today, we know the history of each of those vines, and so we can care for them appropriately in order to ensure that they carry on producing the best bunches.

Immersed within this unique microclimate, the winery decided to allocate some space to the varieties that have characterised the Sardinian tradition, and soon realised that Cannonau and Vermentino should constitute the major grape types on which its output should concentrate. Twin souls of the local terroir – the former red, the latter white – the wines made using these grapes are appreciated right around the world for the identity they express through their unique structure.

On these lands, the rich, varied nature of the soil has also enabled the winery to plant out other – equally prestigious – grape types, such as Monica and Cagnulari. The latter, which was for centuries confined to a peripheral part of northern Sardinia and was almost forgotten about by the island’s winemakers, has been rediscovered and re-evaluated, offering up through its grapes a precious gift. Today, Cagnulari comes into its own in the chalky soils of the Uri, Usini and Ittiri zone, around 20 km from the sea, and in the Guardia Grande area, at the foot of the Monte Doglia mountains.