If you’re here, you’re probably a wine lover. You know a Sauvignon from a Shiraz, right? But a Vernaccia from a Vermentino, or a Monica from a Muristeddu?
These wines come from the second largest island in the Mediterranean, a few miles off the coast of Italy, but a world apart in terms of winemaking heritage, scale and approach.
We source ourselves, direct from family-run vineyards and co-operatively owned cantinas – many of which have never exported to the UK before. These producers are small by European standards, and the vast majority cultivate and process their grapes in time-honoured fashion, skillfully combining generational wisdom with bold new ideas to create a vast, underexplored cellar of wines that for too long have been way too hard to find in the UK.
Terra Sarda Wines is giving you the keys to that cellar!
Who’s behind Terra Sarda Wines?
Terra Sarda Wines is part of Terra Sarda Tours, a bespoke travel company that organises taste adventures on the island of Sardinia.
It was founded and is personally run by Candido and Sue to share their experience of the island’s special hospitality, fascinating history and heart-stoppingly beautiful landscape through the universal language of food and wine.
Having spent years driving case loads of Sardinian wine back to the UK themselves because they couldn’t find it at home, they started to wonder if this wasn’t a big empty glass waiting to be filled.
Enter Sardinian vintner Cristiano Donateo – a chance meeting with his father Ertzio and Terra Sarda Wines would become a reality.
Meet the Team
Candido (Chief People Person)
Candido was born in Sardinia and moved to the UK when he was just 17. He has spent a lifetime in hospitality, opening two restaurants in the north of England where he’s the face of the family business. He’s well known for entertaining customers with mythical stories of Sardinia and its wines.
Favourite wine: Red!
Favourite food: Mixed meat grill – Sardinian or English, it doesn’t matter!
Cristiano Donateo (Chief Wine Guy)
Cristiano is steeped in wine. His earliest memories are of watching his grandfather harvest grapes from his vineyards and craft wine in the family cellar. As a family-owned endeavor, the focus on quality and uniqueness was paramount. “These values became deeply ingrained in my understanding of wine and its cultural significance,” says Cris. “I firmly believe that in the global wine market, the distinguishing factors are quality and originality.”
Cris now runs his own wine company and as Terra Sarda Wines’ representative on the ground in Sardinia, he is the first point of contact with growers.
Favourite wine: Aged and barrel-aged red wines which resonate with my preference for depth, complexity, and the rich traditions they represent.
Favourite food: Ahh, Mediterranean cuisine – simple dishes that showcase the authenticity of their ingredients.
Sue (Chief Organiser)
Sue’s heart lies with farming and the countryside and her dream (still a work-in-progress) is to grow her own olives and grapes in Sardinia. A journalist and food writer, she worked closely with English wine producers in the 1990s when they struggled for recognition, and sees many similarities between the two islands. Her job at Terra Sarda Wines is to keep the wheels on!
Favourite wine: An impossible choice – there are just so many I haven’t yet tried!
Favourite food: Sardinian fresh ricotta with honey… I could eat it until the sheep come home!
What’s important to us
It’s only right that, as a customer, you know what kind of company you’re dealing with. For the wine producers who supply us, that’s important, too.
We’re a small business, but we believe that, whatever your size, you should stay true to some fundamental principles that inform every decision.
Ours are simple:
Be Authentic
Be Fair
Be Caring – for people and planet
Be authentic
This principle guides us in our everyday dealings with customers and suppliers. There’s no BS. We’re honest about what we can and cannot afford to do, what is practical for us and what is not. It also means we have to know and understand our winemakers to make sure what you experience and what we tell you about our wines is genuine.
Be fair
Our winemakers are not global businesses – they are either family-run or cantinas, co-operatively owned by many hundreds of small growers. We want to pay a fair price in return for their skill and investment in producing their wines. By expanding their market, we hope they can continue to invest, improve and scale. In return, we ask them to bear in mind that the UK has particularly punitive alcohol duty, so, if we want more people to buy Sardinian wines, we have to work together.
Be caring
We select growers who demonstrate good stewardship of the land – and, to be fair, that is nearly every wine grower in Sardinia. But there is no getting around the fact that we leave a carbon footprint in the supply chain. We are actively working on addressing that by integrating a carbon counter into our accounts system, which will allow us to tell you what our footprint is and how we’re taking steps to reduce it. Meanwhile, we are doing what we can ourselves – you’ll notice, for instance, that we reuse the wine producers’ boxes rather than put them in the recycling (which uses energy). We’d rather do that than prioritise our branding with fancy packaging. Looking to the future, we are considering using the blockchain to give customers complete visibility on the provenance and environmental management of our wines.
Be authentic
This principle guides us in our everyday dealings with customers and suppliers. There’s no BS. We’re honest about what we can and cannot afford to do, what is practical for us and what is not. It also means we have to know and understand our winemakers to make sure what you experience and what we tell you about our wines is genuine.
Be fair
Our winemakers are not global businesses – they are either family-run or cantinas, co-operatively owned by many hundreds of small growers. We want to pay a fair price in return for their skill and investment in producing their wines. By expanding their market, we hope they can continue to invest, improve and scale. In return, we ask them to bear in mind that the UK has particularly punitive alcohol duty, so, if we want more people to buy Sardinian wines, we have to work together.
Be caring
We select growers who demonstrate good stewardship of the land – and, to be fair, that is nearly every wine grower in Sardinia. But there is no getting around the fact that we leave a carbon footprint in the supply chain. We are actively working on addressing that by integrating a carbon counter into our accounts system, which will allow us to tell you what our footprint is and how we’re taking steps to reduce it. Meanwhile, we are doing what we can ourselves – you’ll notice, for instance, that we reuse the wine producers’ boxes rather than put them in the recycling (which uses energy). We’d rather do that than prioritise our branding with fancy packaging. Looking to the future, we are considering using the blockchain to give customers complete visibility on the provenance and environmental management of our wines.
Terra Sarda Wine Club
£42/month
Here’s what you’ll receive as a member
- A quarterly, curated selection of six, mixed Sardinian wines, delivered to your door with tasting notes. We'll collect three monthly payments before dispatch.
- The opportunity to join four live tasting events a year in person or virtually
- Exclusive members-only shop, so you can top up your favourite wines or gift them to friends and family
- Access to an online community of wine producers and wine lovers with updates and in-depth information on wine, food and the environment
- Regular e-newsletter, The Wine Chronicles
- Preferential booking and member rates for all Terra Sarda Wines’ on-line wine and food events
- 10 per cent saving on Terra Sarda Tours’ Tastes of Sardinia food and wine adventures
- Partner offers