Biography
The choice of the name Argiolas for the winery and the firm was by no means a random one: this has always been a family-run operation ever since its foundation at Serdiana near Cagliari by Francesco Argiolas in the early years of the 20th century. Oral tradition has it that a certain number of vineyards were planted during the First World War by Polish and Austrian prisoners of war. The firm was given a legal structure and entrepreneurial dynamism in 1938 by Antonio Argiolas, son of Francesco, quite active in extending the marketing of wines such as Monica, Nuragus, and Cannonau, previously confined to Sardinia, first to Tuscany, Latium, and the Veneto and then to France and Germany. Wines of good quality, but sold in bulk, not in bottle, as was the case of almost all of Sardinia’s wine at the time, though these were often anonymous in terms of character and personality as well. And during the deep commercial crisis which bulk wine went through in the 1980’s, many cultivators on the island accepted EEC contributions to uproot their vineyards and cease activity altogether. Antonio Argiolas, convinced that quality sooner or later would reveal itself to be a winning choice, refused this solution to the problem, even though it would have been an extremely lucrative one for him, significant capital easily gained. The decisive move came with the arrival of his sons, Franco and Giuseppe, who took over operations in 1989 and transformed production into bottled, not bulk, wine. A decisive event was the collaboration with consulting winemaker Giacomo Tachis, the father of modern Italian oenology, who has inspired the work of house enologist Mariano Murru, his pupil. It was with the assistance of Tachis that the Argiolas brothers transformed their vineyards and experimented new methods in the cellar, the first steps on a journey which has witnessed the success of these wines in all of the markets of the world. If success can be measured with figures, those of Argiolas are imposing ones: 575 acres of vineyards in four different locations, Serdiana, Selegas, Siurgus Donigala, and Porto Pino, ten different wines in the line, and an annual production of some two million bottles: wines which have made the name of Sardinia in the world. The top wine, Turriga, an IGT Isola dei Nuraghi, is a rich blend of various local varieties, Cannonau, Carignano, Bovale Sardo, and Malvasia Nera and has entered into the exclusive club of the internationally famous. Equally important for the name of the firm have been the dry white wine Is Argiolas, a Vermentino of depth and dimension, and the sweet Angialis, a blend in which a small percentage of Malvasia amplifies and further enriches the aromas of Sardinia’s Nasco.