Biography
The Mottura estate, owned by the Mottura family since 1933, extends over 325 total acres in an area rich in natural resources located between the hillsides and clay erosion furrows of Civitella d’Agliano and the plain of Umbria, watered by the Tiber river not far from the city of Orvieto. The viticultural potential of the zone was already noted in 1292, when the cadastral registers of Orvieto defined it is one of the finest for the production of the famed wine of the city. The process of modernization and transformation of the estate began in the 1960’s, sharecropping giving way to the use of salaried manpower, research intensifying in order to identify the plots to be cultivated with grapes capable of giving products of real quality. Operating with this philosophy, the primary objective was to give special attention to local grape varieties, particularly Grechetto, and to work with the methods and criteria of biological agriculture, as has been done for the last fourteen years.
There are other varieties, however, cultivated in addition to Grechetto, three clones of which have been identified on the estate, grapes with rich, heady, and persistent aromas, vigorous and ample in body: Procanico, a variety with well spaced berries on its bunches, very resistant to mould, golden in color, and low-yielding; Verdello, with a compact bunch of dark green color, excellent acidity, and an elegant fragrance; Drupeggio, floral in aroma and velvety in body; Chardonnay, used for a classic sparkling wine; Merlot, Montepulciano, and Pinot Noir, red grapes which often find here ideal conditions for important wines. It is the wines produced with these varieties which have attained the widest recognition both nationally and internationally. Particularly the two finest crus, both 100% Grechetto, the Latour a Civitella, golden yellow in color, elegant in aromatic impact, complex with notes of white fruit, citrus fruit, butter, and hazelnuts, full-bodied, soft, and pleasurably fresh with fruit and vanilla on the finish. And Poggio della Costa, very pleasurable on the nose, ample and fruity both in aroma and on the palate, fresh and persistent, long and lightly tannic on the close.