Santa Maria La Palma: Wine, Parish Church and Nurra Traditions

Santa Maria La Palma: the winery and local history

Santa Maria La Palma offers several specific points of interest to help you plan your trip: Cantina Santa Maria La Palma, with tours and wine tastings; the parish church, Chiesa di Santa Maria La Palma; and the agro-pastoral traditions of the Nurra. The wider regional area also offers a connection to the landscape. Each topic has a different focus—from tastings and the history of the borgata to views across the park and coastal scenery.

Wine tastings at the winery

Cantina Santa Maria La Palma is open to the public for tours and wine tastings. Before a tasting, visitors can explore the production facility. So a visit to the winery offers more than just sampling wine: you can also get to know the facility.

Two tasting options differ in what they include. “4 Sensos” includes a tour of the winery and a tasting of four wines or labels. “3 Binos” combines a tour with three wines and typical local products. Both options include a guided visit; they differ in the number of wines or labels tasted and in that “3 Binos” also includes typical local products. This gives you a concrete basis for comparing the winery’s offerings.

Parish church and the story behind its name

The parish church, Chiesa di Santa Maria La Palma, was inaugurated in 1953 and built by ETFAS (Ente per la trasformazione fondiaria e agraria in Sardegna). Its dedication to the Virgin Mary gave the entire borgata its name. The winery has its own date in local history: it was founded in 1959. The church’s inauguration and the winery’s founding are therefore two separate dates in the history of the place and the business.

Nurra traditions

A program for the Festa della Tosatura highlighted the values and traditions of the agro-pastoral Nurra. It covered the processing of milk from milking through to cheesemaking and included educational workshops on preparing ricotta and desserts. The focus was therefore not only on finished foods, but also on the steps involved in making them.

The demonstrations covered animal care, milking and shearing, as well as milk processing and the use of wool. Tastings of cheese, ricotta, yogurt, Casu axedu and desserts made from these products were also planned. Cooked sheep meat was intended for adults. The Festa della Tosatura thus covers a range of topics, from animal husbandry and dairy products to processing and the use of wool. These insights are quite different from a wine tasting at the winery: they focus on agro-pastoral work and its products.

Monte Doglia in the surrounding region

Monte Doglia is in the surrounding region of Santa Maria La Palma, not in the village itself. A narrow paved road branches off the SS 291 between Fertilia and Santa Maria La Palma and leads to Monte Doglia, the highest elevation in Parco di Porto Conte. From there, 360-degree views extend over Porto Conte Bay, the coast toward Porto Ferro, the Gulf of Alghero, the Calich wetland and the park’s neighboring agricultural area, as far as the Sassari area and the neighboring municipalities of Alghero.

These offer two different perspectives: the winery and parish church provide specific points of interest in Santa Maria La Palma, while Monte Doglia opens up views of the wider region. As you weigh up these topics for your trip, you can focus on the area’s wine and local history or on the park and coastal landscape described here.

Discover more destinations: Sorso, Bonorva, Castelsardo, Olmedo, Viddalba, San Nicola, Tula, Tissi.

For the broader travel overview: Sassari.