Italian wines in the world: Tenute Soletta’s Keramos

We were lucky enough to visit Tenute Soletta last September, when our Italian Wine Tour landed in Sardinia. In the evocative territory of Codrongianos, in the Sassari area, the winery is owned by Umberto Soletta, an acrobatic wine producer, a former promising car driver, who landed on wine through roads different from the traditional ones but still managing to establish himself as one of the most original and interesting wine makers of the Sardinian wine scenario. 

We liked the winery, Umberto and his wines right away. An extraordinary example of which qualitative heights Umberto managed to reach is represented by Keramos, a “contemporary” interpretation of Cannonau that makes you understand how this vine is able to express a personality that is even more elegant, international, than still today too many “rough” versions of poor drinkability.

The skilful use of wood (46 months of which 24 months in oak barrels on the lees) and 12 months in the bottle allow you to give great kindness to Cannonau without depriving it of its fruity strength, its important structure. We tasted the reserve 2015 and it literally fascinated us already on the nose with intense hints of ripe red fruit, in particular cherry, plum, berries (blackberries). The wood is perfectly fused with the fruity sensations but also with the elegant spicy notes of vanilla and cloves. In the mouth you feel the important structure but thanks to excellently smooth tannins, the balance is perfect, great silkiness and in the very persistent finish, red fruit returns and the desire for another glass.

We paired it with a simple but excellent beef stew with baked potatoes and unfortunately the bottle ran out very soon.

Company Profile

The ‘Tenute Soletta di Umberto Soletta’ agricultural holding has a recent history if compared to cellars that are hundreds of years old. However, it has an interesting story of love and passion for the Earth since being launched. The proof? Umberto is still, even today, cultivating a vineyard and an olive grove that he planted with his dad when he was 5. While he was studying, Umberto would spend most of his spare time in the countryside: his big passion together with motorsports (when he was young, he took part in various Rally competitions). After completing his studies, he started working the fields full-time, keeping an important family tradition alive.

This passion later became his job. A ‘farmer’, as he likes to describe himself. In the mid ‘90s, he created the cellar and planted various vineyards, knowing that the value of a wine also depends on the quality of grapes and of the place where they grow. Through intense land reclamation, combined with utmost attention to landscape details, he has brought back the traditional typology of the vineyard by creating a harmonious relationship between the human intervention and the surrounding, sometimes wild, natural environment. The cultivation of vineyards respects the principles of integrated pest control to preserve the environment for future generations we borrowed it from. Today, the company is run by Umberto, his wife Caterina, his sister Pina and the elder father who still work in the vines and cellar every day despite being 95 years old.

Tenute Soletta