Longevity experts believe that 25% of a long life is due to genetics. The rest is open to debate but longevity scientists believe that Sardinian wines play an important part in our Centenarians’ long, happy and active lives — with polyphenols that outscore European red wines by 5 to 10 times.

Sardinia is of volcanic origin and wines from the island have a distinctive minerality to them. Almost all of our vineyards are close to the sea, even when they are in the mountains — and thanks to exposure to our different winds, the “sapidità” (saltiness) is also a distinctive feature.

This distinctive terroir is at its peak with the wines we have chosen from the organic farm and vineyard of Michele Cuscusa. Michele hand picks his wine with friends and family, uses a fraction of added sulphites (this is why you do not get a headache) and grows his wine in a basalt/clay base, surrounded by 150 spontaneous plants growing on his farm. The end result is a wine resembling that of his ancestors — free from human intervention, with wonderful acidity, fruit and all of that “macchia mediterranea”.

Stanley Tucci visited us last year and was blown away by Michele’s wines.

In addition to Michele’s wines, we have chosen an area smack in the middle of the original Blue Zone, famous for its high concentration of Centenarians and equally high polyphenol wines. The Mandrolisai — five mountain communities boasting one of the only Sardinian DOC regions named for a place rather than a varietal.

The Mandrolisai wines are a DOC harvest made from three of Sardinia’s most typical varietals: Bovale (Muristellu), Cannonau and Monica.

Bovale and Cannonau make big, dark red wines thanks to the thick-skinned Bovale grape, with a fair amount of tannins. Monica mellows out these two varietals and makes Mandrolisai a wine with a bouquet of red fruit, white flowers and the complete range of Sardinian brush — macchia mediterranea — going from rosemary and sage to pepper, star anise and earth.