Interview with Vittorio Moretti, Franciacorta entrepreneur | Travel Italy

The link between history, love for beauty, for nature and for the family shines through Stevie Kim's colloquial interview with Vittorio Moretti, an entrepreneur with great experience and keen intuition.

Someone like him was born as a builder, knows how to look big, knowing that the foundations are the basis of all the masterpiece. Moretti has been able to do entrepreneurship not only in the construction sector but also in managing sustainable wine-related companies, taking care of the environment and at the same time thinking about how to make his work profitable by always putting himself to the

test.

The interview takes place in the suggestive Convent of the Annunciation in Rovato, a city at the foot of Mount Orfano, in the southern part of Franciacorta. Here, at 400 meters above sea level, Mount Orfano makes conditions favorable for Franciacorta: in fact, dividing the plain from the hill, it allows a difference of 2-3 degrees and manages to stop humidity, thus ensuring a drier terrain. These factors have meant that in this area there is the oldest vineyard in Franciacorta, which has made it possible to produce an extraordinary product such as its

fine wine.

Vittorio Moretti loves challenges as well as having fun designing and structuring his companies in the wine sector.

He is the owner of numerous renowned companies such as: Bellavista, Contadi Castaldi, Petra, La Badiola in Tuscany, Teruzzi in San Gimignano and Sella&Mosca in Sardinia, the largest grape variety in Europe with 550 hectares where a completely sustainable vineyard is being worked on.

Finally, there is his great love for the Convento dell'Annunciata, a place not only for wine production but for the study and recovery of ancient knowledge and

sustainable redesign.

How was your love for the Convent of the Annunciation born?

This is an extraordinary place for me, right here where Franciacorta was born.

In my book “Renaissance of wine culture at the Convento dell'Annunciata” there is a photo with me and Gianni Brera in 1990, when I took the vineyard that the friars could no longer manage. Subsequently, a careful study and research of the place, carried out together with the University of Milan, followed, aimed at discovering what was originally there on Monte Orfano and the history of the convent. An in-depth study followed to understand the quality of the vineyard. Through this research of clonal selection and massale, the entire vineyard has been regenerated to create a unique product, the result of the union of ancient and new Chardonnay plants

.

The regeneration work is a real challenge, proceeding with the tiring and dangerous work of terracing the vineyards due to the slope of the land. It is a difficult, complex job, but I am always looking for demanding challenges, which are the ones that give the most satisfaction and

extraordinary products.

Your family works with you and you created the Vittorio Mariella Moretti Foundation, can you tell us about it?

Yes, my three daughters, Francesca, Carmen and Valentina, each have a position in the company: between oenology, hotel management and architecture, they have focused on different areas according to their inclinations to better manage every aspect of management. The Foundation, on the other hand, created together with his wife, wants to work like all cultural foundations: in our case, the culture of the vineyard. Its mission is to spread the culture of sustainability, or rather, of eco-sustainability, so that even the small worker can achieve full awareness and then apply it

in his business.

Today a conference on sustainability is taking place here in the Convento. What is sustainability for you and what is the objective of this conference

?

Sustainability is a difficult word and today it is often overused and used out of turn. When managing the vineyard, environmentally sustainable processing means first of all keeping it healthy and not creating problems for the surrounding environment, eliminating all chemical products from the cultivation methods in favor of a final product that is totally genuine

, natural and environmentally sustainable.

Eco-sustainability is the basis of everything.

What would you like to leave to your grandchildren one day as a lesson from your passion in the world of the vineyard?

I wish I had taught people how to live well and to live well you have to live in an environment where ecology comes first. Simplicity sometimes makes us better understand complex concepts and is the real secret to living life well.