Cantina del Vermentino turns 70: Monti cooperative now 350 growers on 600 hectares

The programme on 30 October

The conference, "Il Vermentino in Gallura: storia, terra, scienze e arte", runs at the winery in Monti. The times below are from the cooperative's own programme; Logudoro Live published the same line-up on 29 October.

15:00: welcome from the president, Mauro Murrighile, Monti's mayor Salvatore Loi, regional agriculture assessor Francesco Agus, Settimo Nizzi as president of the Provincia Nord-Est Gallura, Maria Grazia Patrizi of Confcooperative Sardegna, Sebastiana Carta of the regional agency Argea and Maria Amelia Lai of Promocamera
15:30: Giuseppe Mattioli, journalist and member of the cooperative, on how it was founded
16:00: Mario Fregoni, honorary president of the OIV, on how world viticulture is adapting to climate change; Pierpaolo Lorieri of the Accademia della Vite e del Vino on Vermentino as a variety for a warming climate; Attilia Medda, AIS sommelier delegate for Gallura, on how Vermentino di Gallura has changed in the glass; and oenologist Gaetano La Spina on the cellar's future single-vineyard wines from Monti
17:00: Nicolas Martino of the Accademia di Belle Arti Mario Sironi in Sassari presents the exhibition "Materia Viva - Ferment Azioni"
17:30: awards to the oldest and the youngest member
18:00: a commemorative plaque
18:15: the exhibition opens, with a guided tour of the cellar

Marco Bittau, head of La Nuova Sardegna's Olbia newsroom, moderates.

Seventy years in dates

The cooperative's own history lists these milestones:

July 1956: 22 growers from Monti form a cooperative to process their grapes together. Di Testa e Di Gola gives the date as 31 July.
1959: the first red, a Cannonau called Abbai'a
1992: the first Sagra del Vermentino, now held on the first Sunday of August
1996: Vermentino di Gallura becomes a DOCG
2003: a second red, Tàmara
2015: Balari wins a Gran Medaglia d'Oro at Vinitaly

This year the cellar took on Gaetano La Spina, an oenologist from Tuscany, whose first harvest was 2026. Di Testa e Di Gola reports that he is bringing in 130 used barriques, mainly for the reds.

The business today

The cooperative gives about 350 members, about 600 hectares of vineyard in Monti, Telti, Olbia and Loiri Porto San Paolo, and 27 wines; the page is undated. Di Testa e Di Gola puts output at about 3 million bottles a year, about 2.2 million of them DOCG, with members' holdings ranging from half a hectare to 35 hectares or more. Vermentino di Gallura remains Sardinia's only DOCG wine.

At the members' meeting reported by Logudoro Live on 2 March, the accounts for the year to 31 August 2025 showed:

Turnover: €10,961,529, up 2.9% on the year before
Grapes processed: about 32,600 quintals
Paid to member growers: about €4.27 million
Completed: an extension of the bottling hall and a second solar plant
Markets: three large retail chains in Italy, England and Germany, and Australia, China, Brazil, the United States and Canada

The members approved the accounts unanimously; the president is named Gian Mauro Murrighile in that report.

The DOCG rule changes on the table

Di Testa e Di Gola reported in July that changes to the Vermentino di Gallura DOCG rules were sent to the agriculture ministry, Masaf, the month before; the report does not say who filed them:

lower acidity thresholds, because of rising temperatures
a wider alcohol gap between the base wine and the Superiore, to roughly 12% and 13.5%
a Riserva category with minimum ageing, including in bottle
a macerated, skin-contact version

Further ideas mentioned there are naming subzones on the label and allowing vineyards up to 600 metres. The rules currently allow up to 100 quintals per hectare for the base wine and 90 for the Superiore. None of the changes applies until the ministry approves a revised disciplinare, and no approval has been published.

Balari, our pick from the cellar

The cooperative's frizzante Vermentino di Gallura, Balari, is one of our two favourite Sardinian wines, as we wrote in our report on this year's Tre Bicchieri. Our companion post has the full list of 18 winners as a factsheet. It is not on Gambero Rosso's list; the cooperative lists a Gran Medaglia d'Oro at Vinitaly 2015 for it. Di Testa e Di Gola tasted the 2025 at 11% and called it «ottimo da bere in estate» (excellent to drink in summer). At the cellar the cooperative's historic S'Eleme sold for €5.70 a bottle, the same report says.

For visitors

The cellar is at Via San Paolo 2 in Monti, inland from Olbia, and sells its wines on site and online; the cooperative lists its phone number as +39 0789 44012. The 32nd Sagra del Vermentino was scheduled for Sunday 2 August this year, with the 29th Fiera del miele e del miele amaro, La Nuova Sardegna reported; the cooperative says it is normally held on the first Sunday of August. In Monti we have also written about a tasting at Tenuta Masone Mannu and Gallura cooking at Locanda Stella.

A note on the numbers

Size figures depend on the source and the year. Gambero Rosso's winery profile gives 500 hectares and 2,000,000 bottles; the cooperative's website gives about 600 hectares and about 350 members; Di Testa e Di Gola gives about 3 million bottles. The turnover, grape and payment figures are the cooperative's own accounts as reported by Logudoro Live, for a financial year that ends on 31 August. Logudoro Live's report on the anniversary names the president Mauro Murrighile, its March report Gian Mauro Murrighile. The proposed DOCG changes are as reported by Di Testa e Di Gola; we found no later update on their status.

Photo: vineyards in Gallura near Olbia. Photo: Sardinia Blog.

Sources: Cantina del Vermentino, programme for the 70th anniversary · Cantina del Vermentino, history and figures · Logudoro Live, 29 October 2026 · Olbianova, 29 October 2026 · Logudoro Live, 2 March 2026 · Di Testa e Di Gola, 19 July 2026 · La Nuova Sardegna, 31 July 2026 · Gambero Rosso, winery profile