Winegrower Spotlight: Aru Winery, Iglesias

Winegrower Spotlight: Aru Winery, Iglesias

Mario Aru, right, and fellow winemaker, friend, and right-hand man Marco, left (who, incidentally, created this fun wine-and-bottle door handle!)

The story of Aru Winery is one of dedication and determination over three generations and nearly 100 years, starting with Mario Aru’s grandparents. They planted the family’s first grapes in this south west corner of Sardinia, an area that, for thousands of years, was probably more famous for its mines than its vines.

So much coal, iron, lead, silver, and zinc were dug out of Iglesias and neighbouring Sulcis regions, in fact, that until relatively recently Sardinia was considered the most important mining district in the whole of Italy, bringing waves of mainland workers with lira to spend into the desperately poor villages around the Aru family’s farm.

But by the early 1990s global markets had shifted and people departed, leaving ghostly remnants of a remarkable industrial past. Today, the main beneficiaries of those valuable soils are the vines, because, whether or not you subscribe to the theory that minerals can be ‘tasted’ in wine, they have a part to play in the story of winegrowing in Iglesias.

Mario’s vineyard is characterised by well-drained clayey loam soils, sitting on these ancient rocks.

In his grandparents’ day, they’d roll their wooden wine barrels onto the back of a hay cart, hook up the horse and tour local su zileri. These traditional drinking rooms, often part of a domestic dwelling, were where men gathered for wine, banter and often song. They’d chart the volume of wine consumed by scratching the number of glasses they’d drunk on the barrels and, when they were in danger of running out, they’d flag down the wagon with Mario’s nonna waving her wooden merchant’s sign, for a top up.

Drinking wine at su zileri

That sign is now in a fascinating homespun museum that Mario has spent years assembling from family antiquities, abandoned buildings and house clearances that’s taken him on a personal quest across the island. Walking through the old stone farm buildings now, you disappear down a rabbit hole in time, each carefully curated piece prompting another story from Mario. This deep sense of place is expressed in his wines.

They don’t leave the farm in barrels anymore, but in bottles. And not that many of them. This is a tiny producer by Italian standards, its entire harvest contained in a small modern barn, crammed, higgledy piggledy, with stainless steel vats of various sizes.

In one of the smallest, hidden at the back when we visited in November, was a Vermentino that Mario was clearly excited to share with us, even at this early stage in its journey, six weeks after picking.  

Sardinian Vermentino is a distinct variety, all the island’s own. And the 2024 harvest at Aru had produced something very special indeed.

The traditional winegrowing techniques still used here are aimed at producing quality not quantity. The Vermentino planted more than 35 years ago by Mario’s father and still harvested by hand in squeaking baskets yields only 7,000 kilos a hectare – that’s roughly half the average in Italy. But, on the mainland, you’re unlikely to find anything like this – an astoundingly well-balanced, buttery wine that left us struggling to find adequate words to describe it. Mario watched intently for our reaction, a playful expression on his face. Even he had been surprised at what they had produced.

The wine’s name is Per Dario - ‘For Dario’, Mario’s father, who’d left him this legacy.

It was a family’s history in a glass.

🍷You can join us to meet Mario at Aru Wines as part of our Terra Sarda Wines Tour in Autumn 2025. Places are limited. For more information, contact us at hello@terrasardawines.com

🍷Aru Wines’ Sigerro, made from 100 per cent Carignano (red) grapes, featured in our first wine box; its Porto Flavia (named after the nearby minehead), made from 100 per cent Cannonau (red) grapes, will be included in our second selection, available April 2025.

🍷The Per Dario Cagliari Vermentino Superiore DOC 2024 (17% ABV) is not yet available, but we have secured the last few bottles of the 2023 vintage (‘only’ 15%!) and it will be available to try at our March wine tastings (see above for details).