The powerful 2005 Shardana is made of 85% old vine Carignano and 15% Syrah on the island of Sardinia. Shardana is a joint venture with Cantina Santadi and importers Neil and Maria Empson. Three thousand years ago when the Phoenicians arrived on the blue-green shores of the Sulcis peninsula, they called the native people Shardana. When the Empsons created this wine to honor beautiful Sardinia, they decided to call it, too, Shardana. The style of Shardana was inspired by Sulcis’ exceptional terroir and reflects the region’s power-packed, layered complexity; the depth of its seas, the spicy fragrance of its ever-present winds. They wanted to extract all of the Carignano grape’s richness and nobility and reflect the spirit of the seaside vineyards of Sulcis; where sun-drenched grapes glitter in the Mediterranean light, and the crystal-clear Sardinian sea shimmers - blue and green and turquoise - in the sun.