CANTINA LILLIU

Pietro Lilliu and his wife Roberta met when Pietro was pitching his family wines to Roberta’s store in Cagliari, Sardegna’s capital city. At that time Pietro had taken the reigns of the family land from his father taking this humble family’s dream to the next stage. Pietro had big hopes for this small two hectares parcel in the Marmilla, an area of Sardegna that I struggle to deem as one known for it’s winemaking.

The Marmilla is 35 minutes north of Cagliari and is in the middle of the island, surrounded by hills with amazingly no sign of the ocean, which seems to touch every corner of this island. Instead you have these hills, that were deforested about the Pietmontese a century ago leaving parts of Sardgena, like here in the Marmilla, to become almost desert-like after a hot dry summer.

It’s in these conditions where Pietro has almost miraculously created a perfect ecosystem on these pesky two hecatres. He farms naturally, but is not one who cares to determine himself so. He truly believes however that being in synch with nature and creating an ecosystem of different trees and plants has allowed him to carve out his slice of paradise in Sardegna’s unforgiving terrain. Visiting in October after Sardegna has gone without rain for five months is where you witness the beauty of his work. His vineyard is perfectly healthy and water still remains deep under ground for his vines to seek out. If you look anywhere beyond this small property you will notice the ground cracking and fissures practically opening up due to how dry it is, but not at Pietro and Roberta Lilliu’s property.