From the recovery of historic vineyards to a wine of excellence
In this interview we get to know Paolo Baliaone of the founders of the Agricultural Society Andaras of Sant'Antioco. A story that starts from a shared idea and develops between passion for viticulture, valorisation of the territory and attention to quality.
Presentation
"The company Andras, is a Sant'Antioco company that was born 6/7 years ago from an idea of mine, I am Paolo Balia, and of Marco Pinna, who is a friend who has always worked in the world of wine and even today continues to work as a sales manager for several companies, even important ones.
We met again 6/7 years ago and decided to set up this company and put all our experience together, me in the wine sector and him in the marketing sector; in this project we involved another winegrower who has always worked in Sant'Antioco, his name is Massimo Putzu, and my son Alessandro who is younger and therefore interested in developing these activities.
The Project
"We started by pooling our experience and then we moved, first of all, to recover the vineyards at Piede Franco, which are historic vineyards and planted with Carignano clones, the first clones to spread in Sant'Antioco in the 1800s; the history of our company was born from this experience, was born with the recovery of these vineyards and was born above all with the idea of building our own, private winery, so that we could define and close the entire wine production chain.
We started working the vineyards with the idea of producing a wine that could represent us at our best, and being all aware, from our own experience, that the best wine is made in the vineyard, because only if you have an excellent quality of grape can you have an important wine, we started with the recovery of the historic vineyards.
We have aimed to recover the old vineyards in order to obtain the highest quality grapes; only in this way do we know that we can obtain a special wine, a wine that can be recognised qualitatively.
We have been producing three product lines since 2020: a DOC, a RISERVA and a SUPERIORE. These are directly chosen in the vineyard, meaning that based on the vineyards we have and the quality of the grapes we obtain, we direct the vinification and thus the production of our Carignano lines accordingly."
The effects of climate change
"In recent years, clearly we too, like all winegrowers or people working in the countryside, have had to deal with the problems of climate change, which are mainly linked to rising temperatures and scarce rainfall. From a certain point of view, the fact that we find ourselves working in sandy areas helps us a little, because Carignano in sandy areas has a great capacity for resistance, but despite everything, we have had to adapt processing techniques to ensure that the grapes ripen when the plant is not under stress, at least 20 days earlier in the last two or three years, when the plant is not under stress, but perhaps even earlier, but when the plant is still active, when it is active and so the grapes can ripen in the best possible way.
Enhancing the territory of Sant' Antioco
"One aspect that is interesting to emphasise from the point of view of dissemination is that getting back to working the vineyards, working the countryside, is an absolutely important thing. It is important to approach this kind of work and to do it in an absolutely professional way, but it is important because it is important for the maintenance of the land.
The territory needs the presence of people who thus acquire skills, abilities and learn to work and keep things in order.
Having a tidy territory also means having a much, much higher quality of life."
Childhood memories
"As a childhood memory, I can only say that of course having grown up in a country where viticulture was a feather in the cap, crossing the streets back then where there was the countryside and today they practically have huge gardens, today it would be of extraordinary value to take up that kind of activity again, and so in short I hope that these activities will be taken over with the right professionalism."
