Porto Cervo is the shortest yacht season in the Mediterranean and the most concentrated. From late June the Marina di Porto Cervo fills with the fleet that has come up from the Riviera, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda calendar takes over the summer, and by the middle of September most of it has gone again. Everything about provisioning here follows from that: for ten weeks the island is busy beyond its infrastructure, and for the rest of the year it is quiet.

We deliver to Marina di Porto Cervo, to Poltu Quatu in the bay round the headland at Arzachena, and to Marina di Porto Rotondo across the gulf. Orders ship from our French cellar on EU logistics with the island crossing built in, so there is no customs frontier and no import paperwork — but there is a boat, and in August the boats are full. Three to four working days is normal; a week of notice in high season is the difference between a confident delivery and a hopeful one.

The Costa Smeralda drinks like nowhere else on the itinerary. Rosé volumes that would cover a fortnight elsewhere disappear over a long weekend, Champagne is ordered by the pallet rather than the case, and owner dinners here tend to be the ones the cellar was built for. We hold over 1,500 wines, Champagnes and spirits, all priced openly online with a downloadable tasting note on every bottle, so a chief stewardess can build a list at anchor without waiting on a rep.

Sardinian wine is worth carrying while you are here, and guests ask for it after a day ashore: Vermentino di Gallura from the granite hills directly behind the marina, Cannonau from the interior, Carignano del Sulcis from the south-west. We stock them alongside the Burgundy and Bordeaux the owner expects. Tell us the berth and the dates and we will plan the season stock around the charter calendar rather than around one delivery.