Omero Moretti

About

Owner & winemaker: Giusy Moretti
Vineyard management: Certified organic
Soils: Clay
Grapes grown: Ciliegiolo, Sangiovese, Grechetto, Malvasia, Sagrantino, Trebbiano Spoletino
Annual production: 75,000 bottles

Quick facts:

• Giusy Moretti designs all the labels herself, and she strongly believes in their importance. As she puts it, “They are the clothes we put on our bottles. They are our business cards. It is essential to create a label capable of expressing our identity. Taking care of the smallest detail demonstrates attention to the customer.”
• The yeast strain cultivated from their Sagrantino grapes was recently added to the regional register of agricultural genetic resources at risk of genetic erosion.
• Giusy’s grandmother, Quinta, now 96, has become a Youtube star through videos of her preparing traditional recipes.

Moretti has always been a family enterprise. As Giusy explains, “My grandmother started this winery together with my grandfather. They have always done everything together from the beginning. They have always got their hands dirty next to each other. They worked hard every day of their life the same way. I, my grandmother and many other women, are proof that agriculture is for both men and women. That our contribution is no less than that of a man.”

Her father Omero was the first to bottle their wines under the family name, beginning in 1992. Her mother, a nurse, is the reason they’ve been farming organically for over 30 years: she wanted to be sure that her daughters, who spent all day in the vineyards with their dad, were not exposed to dangerous pesticides and chemicals.

Giusy had never planned to return to take over the family business–she studied architecture in Ferrara and Barcelona. “It was not easy to put my dreams in the drawer,” she admits, “but today I know I made the right choice: life in the countryside is special. Furthermore, I am aware that, having studied outside, I can give a lot to my territory, not just my company.”

It is very challenging to keep late-ripening Sagrantino disease-free even during the autumn mists, especially when farming organically. The Moretti team relies on stimulating the plants’ natural resistance to disease, and they only spray copper and sulfur in the most difficult vintages. To promote healthy airflow and ripening, they remove leaves from the vines throughout the growing season, all by hand! As Giusy explains, “this has led to a detailed knowledge of every inch of our vineyards. Our approach varies from micro-zone to micro-zone, according to the growth and balance of each.”

In the winery, they transitioned from using commercial yeasts twenty years ago and have been using a specially cultivated strain of yeast isolated from their own Sagrantino grapes ever since. They don’t use any animal-derived ingredients like isinglass or albumen to clarify the wines, so they have vegan certification for their wines.