Sella & Mosca Setting the Winemaking Standard in Sardinia
The Mediterranean Island of Sardinia is home to idyllic beaches, rugged mountains, and some of Italy’s finest wines. Founded in 1899, Sella & Mosca has earned a worldwide reputation for top-quality, sustainably made wines that showcase true Sardinian character.
With its rustic beauty, extreme geography, and vinous diversity, Sardinia tempts travelers and wine enthusiasts alike. So, it’s little surprise that Messrs. Sella and Mosca — two well-respected figures during the Risorgimento, Italy’s 19th-century unification movement — chose it for their viticultural venture. They established the property as a nursery for rootstocks, providing healthy vines to the European mainland, which was ravaged by phylloxera. Of course, they didn’t stop there. A few years later, they constructed a winery and began making world-class wines.
Today, their legacy lives on with the Moretti family, who has extensive expertise in the wine industry, dating back to the 1970s. The family acquired the estate in 2016, and CEO Francesca Moretti remains actively involved in the Sella & Mosca winery. She works alongside chief winemaker Giovanni Pinna, a Sardinian native with a master’s degree in Oenology and a Ph.D. in Microbic Microbiology. They share a simple, but significant, vision: to make distinctive, characterful wines that showcase their terroir of origin.
To achieve this goal, the Sella & Mosca team strives to preserve Sardinia’s natural landscape. All their vineyards are certified organic and interspersed with native trees and plants to promote biodiversity. They use only estate-grown grapes in Sella & Mosca wines, ensuring both quality and that all-important terroir-driven expression. Giovanni and his team proudly craft some of the best cannonau wines from Sardinia, along with phenomenal vermentino, carignano, and rare torbato.
Given the care put into the vineyards and winemaking, it’s no wonder that Sella & Mosca is Sardinia’s foremost wine producer. The estate has been an ambassador for quality Sardinian wines for over a century — and with the Moretti family’s focus on creating a sustainable future, Sella & Mosca will continue to set the standard for spectacular Sardinian wines.
Terroir
Sardinia has a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers that help grapes ripen and develop intense flavors. The warm daytime temperatures are offset by chilly nights, creating a wide diurnal range that preserves freshness and increases concentration.
The Sella & Mosca winery lies in northwestern Sardinia, where the estate cultivates vineyards in the Cannonau di Sardegna DOC, Vermentino di Sardegna DOC, and the Alghero wine region. This area’s soils are naturally rich in iron, which imparts distinctive mineral notes to and increases the complexity of the wines. In the northeastern Vermentino di Gallura DOCG, the vineyards benefit from sea breezes and higher hillside plantings, which yield structured, elegant wines. The estate also has vineyards in the southern Carignano del Sulcis DOC. This region is enclosed by the by Iglesiente mountain chain and Cape Teulada and has sandy, mineral-rich soils, which allow for an earlier harvest and produce wines with good structures and soft tannins.
Viticulture
As a leader in Sardinian wine production, Sella & Mosca cultivates an impressive 541 hectares / 1,336 acres of vineyards across the island. All the vineyards have been certified organic by the Istituto per la Certificazione Etica e Ambientale (ICEA) and are farmed without pesticides. The estate also supports Sardinia’s natural biodiversity by planting native trees and plants within the vineyards, which also helps with pest management, and by maintaining a five-hectare / 12.5-acre nature preserve for Mediterranean botanical species and local fauna.
Dedicated to restoring Sardinia’s viticultural history, Sella & Mosca is credited with rescuing the native torbato grape from near extinction. They grow cannonau, carignano, and the vermentino grape variety, and they were among the earliest to pioneer the introduction of international grapes, most notably cabernet sauvignon.
Sella & Mosca Wines: A Pure Expression of Sardinia
“We have always worked to minimize interventions with the utmost respect for the base raw material: the grape,” says chief winemaker Giovanni Pinna. “To be able to achieve this, we make use of extremely soft crushing and pressing systems, rigorous control of fermentation temperatures, and very high-quality wooden casks for the refinement of red wines.”
Giovanni marries traditional Sardinian winemaking techniques with modern practices to craft distinctive, 100% estate-grown wines that showcase their terroir of origin. And, as part of the winery’s commitment to the environment, all the wines are vegan.
