More than a century has passed since two adventurous men from Piedmont, engineer Sella and lawyer Mosca, began to reclaim the land on which the more than 550 hectares of Sella&Mosca vineyards now extend. Alongside careful viticulture, carried out with respect for the methods that have guaranteed the excellence of its wines since the distant past, the spirit of innovation and eco-sustainability coexists. The harvest is carried out partly manually, thanks to the efforts of over 200 people who work with the same attention and care as in the past, and partly with the aid of mechanical means. New technologies support the subsequent stages, from the selection of the bunches of grapes to the pressing and vinification, right up to the bottling process, in full respect of the purest tradition, to guarantee the best possible enhancement of the wine's values.
.
One of the fundamental principles of the Sella&Mosca mission, which has always guided the company's production choices, is the enhancement of native grape varieties in line with consumer taste trends. Respect for the place and the culture of wine, attachment to the land and its traditions are the rules transmitted by the founders that have always inspired every activity of Sella&Mosca and have determined its success.
Sella&Mosca is the company that symbolises the rebirth of Sardinian wine. Its production, while impressive in terms of quantity, does not neglect the search for soils and small new crus where the island's native varieties can flourish once again. In what is the most extensive single body vineyard in Europe, Vermentino is certainly the most widespread and favoured white grape. The terroir is that of the Gallura region of Alghero, which combines a typically Mediterranean climate with ancient light-coloured soils of marine origin. The sun, which brings the grapes to full maturity, and the wind, which gives them a patina of maritime iodine, do the rest. In other words, all the best prerequisites for wines of great richness balanced by exceptional sapidity.
And it is on this soil and in this climate that the magical story of Torbato is grafted: the white Alghero grape variety in which Sella&Mosca has successfully invested in its range. Torbato is a very localised grape variety, whose cultivation is nowadays exploited, in practice, only in the Alghero area, which for linguistic and cultural reasons can be defined as being on the border between Italy and Catalonia.
Terre Bianche Cuvée 161 is a pleasant and engaging wine, with a brilliant golden yellow colour. The nose is fresh and delicate at first, then full of complexity with hints of Mediterranean scrub, yellow-fleshed fruit, thistle flowers and ripe herbs. Puffs of honey and iodine always stand out in the finish. On the palate it is full-bodied and severe, with some anticipation of softness confined to an aftertaste clearly marked by saline tones. It is in fact sufficiently acidic to balance itself with a mineral sapidity that well supports the structure, softened by a hint of sweet spice, perhaps due to the fact that 15% of the wine rests in barriques for about six months, while the rest remains in steel on the lees. This is a versatile wine that lends itself well to accompanying a wide range of first courses, and is irreplaceable when paired with shellfish.
