Italy · Mandrolisai & Barbagia (Central Highlands)

Cantina Teularju

Family estate in Mamoiada, Barbagia, farming 8 hectares of Cannonau across four named single plots called Ghirada. Founded 2017 by Francesco Sedilesu and his sons. First vintage 2019. Organic farming, spontaneous fermentation, medium-weight wines built on granite, altitude, and bright acidity.

The producer

Mamoiada is a village in Sardinia's mountainous Barbagia interior, better known outside the island for its ancient carnival masks than for wine. Francesco Sedilesu spent more than twenty years in the wine trade before he and his three sons founded Cantina Teularju there in 2017 and planted eight hectares of Cannonau on granite slopes above 700 metres. They divided those eight hectares into four named plots, each called a Ghirada, a Sardinian term for a distinct land parcel with its own character. From the first 2019 harvest, the family bottled each Ghirada separately: Ocruarana, Cara'Gonare, Erula, and Rizza.

Where Barbagia Cannonau once meant deep colour, heavy body, and high alcohol, Teularju's bottles are ruby and medium-weight, built on bright acidity and a mineral granite note that runs through every wine in the range. In 2025, critic Antonio Galloni scored five Teularju wines between 91 and 94+ points and named the single-Ghirada Cara'Gonare the best wine in Sardinia. A winery six years old, in a village most Italians know for its festival costumes, had placed first on the island.

Known for

Cannonau di Sardegna DOC and IGT Sardegna from four single-Ghirada plots and a multi-plot blend

Notable facts

The story

The Village Nobody Expected

In April 2025, Antonio Galloni published his ratings for a Sardinian tasting that included five wines from Teularju. Mamoiada is a village of about 2,400 people whose name circulates internationally because of its carnival: dancers in masks representing ancient spirits, the Mamuthones, whose procession is one of the oldest documented in Europe. The village has no particular wine reputation. Teularju had produced its first bottle six years earlier. Galloni scored Cara'Gonare 2022 at 94+ points and named it the best wine in Sardinia, writing that he was floored by the complexity and sheer gracefulness of the range. The other four wines scored between 91 and 93 points. Outside Mamoiada, the result landed as a surprise. Inside it, the family had been farming those four granite plots since 2017 and had simply been waiting for someone to taste carefully.

From the atlas

Cantina Teularju

At A Glance

LocationMamoiada, Barbagia, central Sardinia
GrapeCannonau
Founded2017
First Vintage2019
AppellationCannonau di Sardegna DOC / IGT Sardegna
FarmingOrganic, spontaneous fermentation
Hectares8
Entry WineBarbagia Rosso

The Producer

Mamoiada is a village in Sardinia's mountainous Barbagia interior, better known outside the island for its ancient carnival masks than for wine. Francesco Sedilesu spent more than twenty years in the wine trade before he and his three sons founded Cantina Teularju there in 2017 and planted eight hectares of Cannonau on granite slopes above 700 metres. They divided those eight hectares into four named plots, each called a Ghirada, a Sardinian term for a distinct land parcel with its own character. From the first 2019 harvest, the family bottled each Ghirada separately.

The wines are not what Sardinia was known for. Where Barbagia Cannonau once meant deep colour, heavy body, and high alcohol, Teularju's bottles are ruby and medium-weight, built on bright acidity and a mineral granite note that runs through every wine in the range. In 2025, critic Antonio Galloni scored five Teularju wines between 91 and 94+ points and named the single-Ghirada Cara'Gonare the best wine in Sardinia. A winery six years old, in a village most Italians know for its festival costumes, had placed first on the island.

Place

Barbagia occupies the mountainous centre of Sardinia, a territory of granite, scrub oak, and altitude that separates the island's coast from its inland plains. Mamoiada sits within it at over 700 metres, where summers are warm by day and cold at night, and that temperature swing through the growing season slows ripening and locks acid and aromatic freshness into the grapes. Cannonau grown here does not accumulate alcohol and weight the way it does at lower elevations near the coast.

The legal container for Teularju wines is either Cannonau di Sardegna DOC, where appellation rules govern Cannonau planted across the island, or IGT Sardegna, which gives the family more freedom in how they label and present individual Ghirada bottlings. Both labels appear in the range depending on the wine.

Soil And Site

Granite underlies all four Ghirada plots. Granite soils drain freely, forcing vine roots to work deep for moisture, and they carry a mineral signature into the wine that shows clearly on the finish of every Teularju bottle. The combination of altitude, granite, and the diurnal temperature variation of Barbagia is what separates this Cannonau from the warmer, softer versions produced at lower elevations elsewhere on the island.

The specific composition and mineralogy of each plot are not publicly documented, but the sensory differences between the four single-Ghirada wines, all scored independently by Galloni in the same tasting, suggest the parcels are genuinely distinct.

Story

Francesco Sedilesu's decision to farm his own land in Mamoiada rather than continue in the broader wine trade was a considered departure. The Sedilesu family chose altitude and granite over the more accessible zones of Sardinian Cannonau production, and they chose to farm organically from the outset with spontaneous fermentation rather than commercial yeast. Both decisions slowed things down: organic farming requires more time in the vineyard, and spontaneous fermentation gives the winemaker less control over timing and temperature.

The founding choice to separate the eight hectares into four Ghirada and bottle each one alone from the very first harvest was a structural commitment. It meant the family could not blend away the differences between plots; each wine had to stand on its own. Ocruarana and Cara'Gonare were the two Ghirada bottled in 2019. Erula and Rizza followed. By the time Galloni visited the range in 2025, all four were being scored independently, and all four landed between 92+ and 94+ points.

Vineyards And Cellar

The eight hectares are farmed organically throughout, with spontaneous fermentation used for every wine in the range. Spontaneous fermentation relies on wild yeasts present on the grape skins and in the cellar, rather than inoculated commercial strains. It takes longer, runs less predictably, and tends to produce wines with more textural complexity and aromatic variation between vintages. The decision to use it across all four Ghirada rather than reserve it for a premium tier says something about the family's priorities: the method applies to the whole estate, not just the flagship.

Aging vessel type and duration are not publicly confirmed for any wine. The pale ruby colour and the freshness of the tannins in the Barbagia Rosso suggest extended oak contact is not part of the approach, but no official vessel details are available.

Wines

The range has five wines, all from Cannonau.

Cara'Gonare is the estate's single-Ghirada benchmark, scored 94+ by Galloni in 2025 and named the best wine in Sardinia that year. One of the two plots bottled in the inaugural 2019 vintage.

Ocruarana is the other inaugural 2019 Ghirada. Galloni scored it 93 points in 2025. Both Cara'Gonare and Ocruarana represent the original founding vision: one plot, one wine, nothing blended.

Erula and Rizza are the two later Ghirada additions. Erula scored 93 points, Rizza 92+, in the same 2025 tasting. The four single-plot wines together form a set of arguments about how differently the same grape, farmed the same way on the same hillside, can speak across four parcels.

Barbagia Rosso is the multi-Ghirada blend and the entry point into the range. It carries the IGT Sardegna designation and scored 91 points from Galloni. The nose opens on wild strawberry, cranberry, rose petal, dried herbs, and black and pink peppercorn. The palate is medium-bodied and juicy, with cranberry, cherry flesh, and underripe strawberry, and a long finish with a granite mineral bite. Pure ruby in colour.

In The Glass

Cannonau from Mamoiada at altitude smells different from the Cannonau most drinkers encounter in richer, coastal versions. Wild strawberry and cranberry lead, with rose petal underneath and dried herbs and peppercorn at the edges. The fruit is cool-toned rather than jammy. On the palate the wines are medium-bodied and juicy, with acidity that keeps the tannins from sitting heavily, and a mineral granite note that arrives on the finish and lingers. The fruit through the mid-palate is precise: cherry flesh, cranberry, underripe strawberry, with a freshness that holds from the first sniff to the last moment in the glass. The finish is long and mineral, with a subtle spice. Across the range, as the single-Ghirada wines climb in score from Rizza to Cara'Gonare, the same character deepens and tightens without losing the lightness that defines the estate's approach.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Barbagia Rosso. It draws from all four Ghirada and gives a clear account of what Mamoiada Cannonau at altitude tastes like before the single-plot distinctions come into view. The wine is pure ruby, medium-bodied, and built on wild strawberry, cranberry, and rose petal, with bright acidity, refined tannins, and a long granite finish. It scored 91 points from Galloni. Once it is in the glass, the four single-Ghirada wines become the natural next step: the same grape, the same farming, four different plots, four distinct answers.

Anecdote

In April 2025, Antonio Galloni published his ratings for a Sardinian tasting that included five wines from Teularju. Mamoiada is a village of about 2,400 people whose name circulates internationally because of its carnival: dancers in masks representing ancient spirits, the Mamuthones, whose procession is one of the oldest documented in Europe. The village has no particular wine reputation. Teularju had produced its first bottle six years earlier. Galloni scored Cara'Gonare 2022 at 94+ points and named it the best wine in Sardinia, writing that he was floored by the complexity and sheer gracefulness of the range. The other four wines scored between 91 and 93 points. Outside Mamoiada, the result landed as a surprise. Inside it, the family had been farming those four granite plots since 2017 and had simply been waiting for someone to taste carefully.

Final Word

Teularju is six years old and already at the top of Sardinian critical rankings. The project is not complicated: one grape, four named plots, organic farming, spontaneous fermentation, altitude, granite, and the discipline to bottle each parcel alone. The wines are lean, bright, and mineral by Sardinian historical standards, and that departure was the whole point from the beginning.

Sources

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