Wines from Sergio Mottura

History

The estate at Civitella d'Agliano was bought in 1933 by Alessandro Mottura, a civil engineer from Piedmont. In 1963 his son Sergio, then 21, moved from Turin to run it. At the time the land was farmed by sharecroppers, with 21 farms on the property, and the end of that system forced a new way of working. Sergio planted the first modern vineyard in 1968, in the area called Ombrico, from old Grechetto vines trained on living trees. The Poggio della Costa vineyard followed in 1970, and in 1984 the first classic method sparkling wine was made.

Sergio became fascinated by Grechetto soon after he arrived and spent years studying it. In 2003 his Grechetto Latour a Civitella became the first white wine from Lazio to win three glasses in the Gambero Rosso and Slow Food guide, and in 2012 the same guide named him Winemaker of the Year.

The land and the vineyards

The estate lies in the Tuscia area near Viterbo, where Lazio meets Umbria, with clay hills and eroded gullies to the west and the plains of the Tiber to the east. The farm covers 120 hectares, of which 37 are vineyards. The rest is a mosaic of olive groves, cereal fields, meadows and woods. Lake Bolsena, a volcanic lake, is close by and shapes the soils.

The vines were converted to organic farming from 1991 and certified in 1996. The estate uses spontaneous grass between the rows, no chemical fertilizers, and since 2018 chestnut tannin against downy mildew in place of copper based sprays.

The wines

Grechetto is the centre of the range. There is an Orvieto made from half Grechetto and half Procanico, an Orvieto called Tragugnano, and three pure Grechetto wines: Poggio della Costa, La Torre a Civitella and Muffo. The reds are Civitella Rosso from Merlot, Syracide from Syrah and Nenfro from Montepulciano. Magone is a Pinot Nero, and the Spumante is a Chardonnay.

Winemaking is split across two sites four kilometres apart. A modern winery on Strada Ombricolo, built in 1998 and powered partly by solar panels, handles fermentation and bottling. The historic cellar in a seventeenth century building in Civitella d'Agliano has tuff caves at a steady 12 degrees, used to age still wines in barriques and steel and to rest the sparkling wine in bottle.

Today

The Mottura family still runs the estate. The old cellar building also houses the agritourism La Tana dell'Istrice, and the winery offers visits and tastings.

Founded

1933 (estate bought by Alessandro Mottura)

Area

Civitella d'Agliano, Lazio

Vineyards (hectares)

37 (of a 120 hectare farm)

Main grapes

Grechetto, Procanico, Merlot, Syrah, Montepulciano, Pinot Nero, Chardonnay

Owners

Mottura family