White wine with fresh cheese, red wine with aged cheese. It is one of those rules you learn at the table almost as soon as you start paying attention. In Sardinia, however, all it takes is an afternoon in a cheese shop or a stop at a winery to realise that this rule can easily be turned on its head. Vermentino, the white wine that more than any other tells the story of the island beyond its shores, while expressing its endless nuances across different terroirs, can go far beyond summer ricotta and fresh cheese. Vermentino pairings can, in fact, include more intense and aged cheeses too, provided you understand their character and carefully choose what to pair them with.

To understand just how far it can go, we once again turned to Michele Cherchi, a cheese expert and one of Sardinia’s foremost authorities on cheese, whom we had previously met at one of our Vite events. His starting point immediately shifts the conversation from the glass to the pasture: “For a perfect marriage, there needs to be a common root. And what is the common root of wine and cheese? The land. If the animals have fed on grass, they have drawn their main source of nourishment from the land, just as the vine has. At that point, the marriage can truly be perfect”.

To talk about pairings, you need to look inside the glass. Sardinian Vermentino is not a delicate white wine. It certainly has freshness, but also pronounced savouriness, an aromatic profile redolent of Mediterranean scrub and, in its more structured expressions, enough body and warmth from the alcohol to stand up to bold flavours.

“Savouriness, Mediterranean scrub and often a slightly bitter finish: these are the fundamental characteristics that distinguish a Vermentino”, Cherchi sums up. And it is precisely these qualities that explain why it works so well with cheese. Freshness and savouriness cleanse the palate of the richness of the milk; notes of herbs, myrtle and helichrysum echo in cheeses made from animals grazing on wild pastures; the slightly bitter finish balances the sweetness and roundness of the cheese.

The Vermentino di Gallura is the only DOCG in Sardinia, recognised in 1996. It is produced in historic Gallura, in the north-east of the island, on wind-swept granite soils. The Vermentino di Sardegna DOC, on the other hand, covers the entire region and gives voice to very different territories, from the inland hills to the plains near the sea.

The differences can truly be measured from one hectare to the next, from one coast to another. The expression changes. So do the soils, the exposures, and the people who work in the vineyards and in the cellar. To say simply Vermentino is wrong. Because it is like saying Sardinia, and there are many Sardinias. As many as the more than 24,000 square kilometres that make up the island. And we should not forget that even within the same appellation, different paths can be taken: “In Gallura, there are different interpretations, including those who carry out some skin maceration, and therefore obtain a little more extraction and structure”. It is a detail that, at the table, makes all the difference.

The point is not to prove that a white wine can stand up to any cheese. It is about understanding which ones. In this case, aged does not mean the oldest possible: very mature, hard and piquant cheeses risk overpowering the wine. “We do not look for pairings with cheeses that are too structured, so as not to throw everything out of balance”, Cherchi warns. The ideal territory is that of young cheeses with personality and medium-aged cheeses, where complexity increases without becoming aggressive.

The selection criteria should also be turned on their head compared with what is often done with red wines. “I go for affinity. With contrast, there is a real risk that the balance shifts towards one sensation or the other”. In other words, wine and cheese need to speak the same language, and understand each other without a translator.

A language that traditional Sardinian cheeses know well. Pecorino Sardo DOP, made from semi-cooked curd and calf rennet, comes in two versions: dolce, aged for 20 to 60 days, and maturo, which is aged for more than two months and develops a firm texture and a pleasantly piquant flavour over time. Fiore Sardo DOP, the cheese of the island’s inland areas, follows an entirely different path: whole Sardinian sheep’s milk, raw curd, lamb or kid’s rennet paste, and smoking with branches of Mediterranean scrub. Ready to eat after three months, it gradually becomes more intense and more animal in character.

With DOCG Vermentino, Cherchi opts for tradition, with a few departures from the norm. “I would go for classic semi-cooked cheeses, drawing on Sardinian tradition, but also for something more innovative, such as pecorino flavoured with thyme or myrtle, with Mediterranean scrub elements that echo the Mediterranean character of the wine itself”. A Pecorino Sardo aged for a few months, with a still-soft texture and a hint of piquancy, finds a natural ally in the savouriness of Vermentino di Gallura.

For fresher Vermentino, often made by a new generation of winemakers moving away from the classic style, the pairing turns towards new-generation cheeses. “I am thinking of sheep’s milk robiola: a lovely acidic base, rich cheeses that need the freshness of the wine”. Here, the acidity of the wine works like a knife, and each sip prepares the palate for the next bite.

This is perhaps the most interesting frontier in contemporary Sardinian cheesemaking. Some dairies on the island are experimenting with washed-rind cheeses, treated during ageing with sponging using water and salt, and sometimes even wine or beer. “Always young cheeses, but with a bit of personality”, Cherchi describes them, and he sees them as a good match for young Vermentino. The intense aroma of the rind meets the freshness of the wine, and the result surprises anyone expecting a clash.

It is not an aged cheese, but it is one of the pairings that surprises the most. Here come pasture-raised cow’s milk ricottas, “rich in fat, but with lovely savouriness and aromatic character”. The decisive detail is precisely the pasture: that is where the aromas come from, able to engage in a dialogue with those of the wine. In other words, the Mediterranean character can be found both in the glass and in the cheese.

When Vermentino gains structure, texture and depth, it is time to be bold: “A more ambitious pairing can be attempted, with medium-aged cheeses, perhaps with lamb’s or kid’s rennet, which have a little more intensity”. A pecorino made with rennet paste, or a Fiore Sardo still at table age, with its animal and slightly smoky notes, finds the right partner in these wines.

Last but not least, the sparkling version. “Let’s not forget the sparkling versions: they are an excellent match for young, rich cheeses with a good acidic backbone”. Think of goat’s cheeses: the bubbles caress the creaminess of the cheese and lighten its texture.

These pairings are at their best when experienced in the places they come from. A Vermentino tasting in Sardinia thus becomes a small journey through the territory, among vineyards, pastures and wineries.

In Gergei, in the Sarcidano, Olianas has built its approach to wine around bio-integrated agriculture, where horses work between the rows and terracotta amphorae stand alongside stainless steel and wood. In a place like this, the common root becomes the land that nourishes both the vines and the animals. A tasting at the estate, a light lunch featuring the flavours of the island, or a cellar visit between September and November, when the harvest brings the inland countryside to life, offers the chance to put these pairings to the test, glass in hand. Because confining Vermentino to a lunch on the beach means missing out on much of what it has to say. Paired with semi-cooked pecorino, sheep’s milk robiola or a washed-rind cheese, Sardinia’s signature white wine reveals a deeper and more surprising side. All it takes is to set aside a few rules learned by heart and start with the land. The rest is done by the wine in the glass.