Face to face with Vittorio Moretti and Attilio Scienza.

For today's appointment of "The Italian Wine Podcast", we find ourselves in Sardinia, within the ancient wine estate of Sella&Mosca. Here we meet Vittorio Moretti and Professor Attilio Scienza: friends for over forty years, the two met thanks to their shared passion for enology, which still binds them and leads them to explore the Sardinian territory of Alghero, the DOCG of Gallura, and the smaller portion of Carignano del Sulcis vineyards, to make the wines of the estate increasingly competitive in quality.

Vittorio, Attilio: would you like to tell us a bit more about your friendship?

Professor Scienza worked at the University of Milan, which we collaborated with: I met him there, and to me, he has always been the foremost expert on vineyards in Italy, even more so today. My daughter and many of my collaborators studied with him, but I don't think any of his students have reached his level of experience.

Our relationship is both a friendship and a work collaboration, continues the professor.
I helped realize the installations and find the best genetic material, rootstocks, and clones. The most important moment for me was the zoning in Franciacorta, one of the first in our area. We sought to understand the specifics of each terroir to guide the production of grape clusters most suitable for the individual subzones, continuing to conduct the same investigations for Petra and the other estates. To make a mass selection of Merlot, we even went to France, in the Pomerol wine region, where Pétrus is produced: no one in Italy had done anything like that.

Have there been other significant episodes in your friendship?

We have done so many things; it's hard to choose just one! All the vineyards we have stemmed from Attilio's work, Bellavista, Petra, La Badiola, up to here, at Sella&Mosca, where perhaps the situation is more complex.

This company was founded at the end of the 19th century, thanks to the interest of two Piedmontese," continues Professor Scienza. Until recently, the focus was on efficiency and cost reduction; there was no desire for particular or qualitatively superb wines: the commercial climate was different, as were people's tastes. Today, the operation is aimed at a recovery of quality, centered around a few local varieties. We need to develop a modern enology, also made up of sparkling wines, of the classic method, for which an excellent base is required; the goal for the coming years is to produce Vermentino and Cannonau with potential, studying the geography of the place like never before.

This is because fine geological maps did not exist before your intervention, right?

Vittorio had analyses done for the first 70 hectares, and gradually that study will expand to discover the soil composition, where marine-origin rocks and volcanic corners intertwine, where every particularity must be functional to finding the most suitable rootstocks and clones – the Sardinian ones, the French ones from Corsica, those from the Tyrrhenian Sea. We want to plant self-sufficient vines, which almost do not need irrigation: the operations we are carrying out in this regard are innovative and are not traditionally performed.

From your account, it is clear that this modernization process is quite a challenge: what keeps you persevering in pursuing it?

I embarked on this new path at 75 years old, asserts Vittorio, but I had already visited the company 30 years ago. Since then, it has remained in my heart, and I have had the desire to invest in these lands that many have defined as “lost”: the versatility of the place is immense, and the production is quantitatively high. Our other brands – Bellavista, Contadi Castaldi, Petra – produce limited, niche numbers: we needed a more inclusive product for the market, accessible to everyone.