VERMENTINO

I’ve got a real soft spot for vermentino, a white grape variety that is perfectly adapted to the sun and sea breezes of sites along the Mediterranean across the south of France (where it’s often known by the decidedly less glamorous name of rolle) and round the corner in Liguria (pigato) into Tuscany and on the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. It’s a variety that winegrowers appreciate all the more these days for its ability to maintain enough acidity and freshness to make white wines of nip, zip and verve even in the increasingly blistering heat of a Mediterranean summer. Many of those wines are at their best in those very same conditions – refreshing, ctirussy and gently floral unoaked wines begging to be drunk with grilled fish on a summer terrace. At this time of the year, however, a cool glass of a wine such as Domaine les Yeuses’ vermentino has the effect of bringing a shaft of southern sun to darkening northern skies. Andrew Neather - The Observer (Oct 2025)