2004 January 10, Telegraph Weekend

Sumptuous Sardinians - The island's wines owe more to their Spanish than their Italian heritage - no bad thing, says Harry Eyres.

D H Lawrence described Sardinia as "a savage, dark-bushed, sky-exposed land, forsaken to the sea and the sun". Eighty years on, much of this island, which is marginally larger than Wales, still fits this descriiption.

Sardinia has room for both billionaires and bandits. The billionaires live it up in the Costa Smeralda, the 30-mile strip of stunning coastline in the north-east that was turned into a plutocrats playground by the Aga Khan and associates in the 1960s. Every now and then, the bandits, who are holed up in the islands wild interior, kidnap one of them.

Although the wines remain largely undiscovered, London chefs are increasingly turning to Sardinia and Sicily for inspiration. Pasta dishes with strange names like maloreddus (a type of gnocchi), breads such as carasau (a wafer-thin crispbread) and rasin-based cakes, such as pappasinos (tiny, raisin-studded pastries) are making their way into delis and restaurants. Among my favourites is Sardo, a new Sardinian restaurant in Fizrovia (020 7387 2521). Like the food, the wines deserve wider recognition. "Sardinian wine offers remarkable value for money," say Stefano Vallebona, head of Vallebona, a Wimbledon based family business importing wine and food from the island. "The wines have body and structure, but they are easy and relaxed to drink.They are not off-puttingly complex like some Piedmont or Tuscan reds."