Sergio Mottura “Latour a Civitella” Grechetto 2015
Wine review: Sergio Mottura “Latour a Civitella” Grechetto 2015
First, lets get to know this wine and where it comes from:
The Mottura family has roots in Piedmont reaching back to the 1500’s AD. Sergio was the son of a mint farmer, Domenico Mottura and the nephew of a railway engineer, Alessandro Mottura. In the early 1930s, while working on the trans-continental railway from Milan to Naples, Alessandro purchased the wine estate at Civitella d’Agliano.
Winemaking in this region dates back to 1292, thanks to bishops and Popes who traveled through the area during Etruscan times. Famous members of the clergy at this time would go to Orvieto to escape the hazards and business of Rome. Orvieto was at one point an official Papal residence. During these times, through into the early 15th century, wine from Orvieto would be shipped by the barrel to Rome. The Mottura property was purchased in part due to its remarkable location, it was equidistant from Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany. — and therefore close to Rome, Florence and Sienna. The sprawling estate (which hangs on the border of Lazio and Umbria) covers 130 hectares total. On the west end, the estate follows rolling hills into low clay ravines called Civitella d’Agliano. On its eastern border, the Tiber valley, rich in complex soils and natural resources, crawls inward towards Umbria. Originally a sharecropping property, the estate managed cows and sheep for milk and wool and produced wine, olive oil, cereals. Initially, the Mottura family spent their summers in the main house, which is a medieval “palazzo” style hall at the center of the village, the wines produced were sold back in Turin, Piedmont.
Sergio took over the estate in the 1960’s and began intense restoration and modernization projects. He took the estate into its newest era by updating the training methods of the vines, converting the farming methods to organic and conserving traditional crops that had been removed by the previous tenants. He began planting Procanico (Trebbiano) and Montepulciano and found, after much research, that Grechetto’s thick skin and resistance to disease also lent itself to organic growing practices.
Today, Mottura’s top wines, of which there are two, are both 100% Grechetto. They are regarded by some as the best whites in Lazio: the minerally, unoaked Poggio della Costa and richer, oaked Latour a Civitella. The latter was named in honor of Sergio’s friend Fabrice Latour of Maison Louis Latour. Fabrice acted as a mentor when Sergio decided to create a premium oaked Grechetto, suggesting different oak for the barrels for fermentation and even lending Sergio and his oenologists to help develop the wine.
Sergio Mottura in his cutsey Italian hat
The Wine
The Latour a Civitella is 100% grechetto blended from five individual vineyard plots. The fermentation occurs at a controlled temperature in French barriques and is further kept to mature for nine months. The wine is then placed in bottle and rests for 6 additional months before it is released. The wine opens up with yellow and white stone fruit, citrus marmalade and toasted oak aromas. On the palate the wine is powerful and full bodied featuring notes of toasted hazelnut and ripe Golden Delicious apple.