Alvas Bianco - another amber nectar

Alvas is an extraordinary white wine made with extended skin maceration (eighteen days). The motley cast of fragrant and spicy varieties features Retallada, Vernaccia, Nuragus, Seminano, Vermentino, Malvasia and Nasco. Nuragus has an interesting provenance: some experts believe that it was brought to the island during the XII century B.C. by Phoenicians; others believe that it’s a native variety because its name is similar to the famous neolithic stone construction of Nuraghi.

It’s always been a resistant and adaptable variety and a good yielder: for this reason it is also known as “pagadeppidus"(pay debts), “preni tineddus"(fill up vats), and “uva de is paberus"(poor man’s grapes).

Alvas (meaning white – ha) is hazy-amber with a subtle nose of orange flowers, verbena, ricard and apricot skin. The wine smells warm, like bread dough just taken out of the oven.  Smooth in the mouth the wine picks up notes of apricot jam, ginger and white pepper (from the lees) as well as tannin and a faint nuttiness from the skin contact. In a word, Alvas is gorgeous. We drank it with baby squid stuffed with chorizo, pine nuts, sultanas, shallots and parsley on the first night and with a chicken, fennel, carrot and black olive stew on the second.