Petra

"According to legend, this is the sea into which Aphrodite scattered the pearls of her necklace and from which Tuscany was born. The beauty of the region makes us believe this legend! But scientifically speaking, the Belvento, the beautiful wind, is an important factor in the development of grape quality, as it is precisely this wind that ensures good ventilation of the vineyard, the cooling breeze that keeps the freshness in the grapes and makes these wines so pleasantly invigorating." Flavours and aromas are always created here from the interplay of land and sea. This is why the labels of Belvento wines depict the animal species that live on the coast, in the waters and in the nearby nature reserve. I Vini del Mare Belvento – this name stands for the still young project of the Moretti family and explains which wines are produced here in the Maremma near the coast: The wines of the Sea of Fair Winds.

I Vini del Mare Belvento - this name stands for the still young project of the Moretti family, as it describes the wines they harvest and press here in the Maremma, close to the sea: the wines of the Sea of Fair Winds. "According to legend, this is the sea into which Aphrodite scattered the pearls of her necklace and from which Tuscany was born. The beauty of the region makes us believe this legend! But scientifically speaking, the Belvento, the beautiful wind, is an important factor in the development of grape quality, as it is precisely this wind that ensures good ventilation of the vineyard, the cooling breeze that keeps the freshness in the grapes and makes these wines so pleasantly invigorating." Flavours and aromas are always created here from the interplay of land and sea. This is why the labels of Belvento wines depict the animal species that live on the coast, in the waters and in the nearby nature reserve.

Belvento – the good wind. This is the name of Petra's maritime wine project, born from the narrow landscape where the metal hills of the Val di Cornia meet the Tyrrhenian Sea. Velarosa is its rosé and the name itself is both an image and a promise: a pink sail that picks up speed. 100% Grenache, hand-picked at the beginning of September, briefly crushed and fermented in steel at a controlled temperature.

The name "The Whale" refers to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which can be seen from the hills of Suvereto and whose breeze sweeps daily over the San Lorenzo vineyard in the single vineyard of the same name. What is produced here carries this sea within it. 50% Vermentino, 50% Viognier – a meeting of two Mediterranean characters on loamy-sandy, slightly chalky soil, 18-year-old vines, Guyot. Three months on the fine lees. What ends up in the bottle is one of those white wines that you don't analyse, but simply drink.

Vermentino can get burnt. Too much direct sunlight before the harvest and the berry loses its aromatic precursors – the bouquet flattens out, the palate becomes broader, oilier, with an almond-accentuated finish that conceals terroir instead of revealing it. This is a well-known pitfall on the Tuscan coast. In Montebamboli, it is deliberately avoided. The training is programme: Guyot on both sides, foliage kept dense so that the fruit zone remains in the shade. Only the shadiest grapes are harvested, where diffuse light protects the flavour. End of August, beginning of September, by hand, with careful selection. Cooled to 3°C overnight, then whole bunch pressing, static clarification. Fermentation 70% in steel at 18–20°C, 30% in new barriques. Six months on the fine lees with regular bâtonnage, six months in the bottle.

On a car journey to Bordeaux – francesca Moretti and her father Vittorio – the dream that drives Petra was born. Great red wines with a Mediterranean soul and Bordelese precision. Back in Suvereto, the family planted their first vines on the Tenuta San Lorenzo. The vineyard right next to the cantina – named after the gnarled oaks on the edge of the maquis – is Francesca's most personal terrain. Merlot is her favourite grape variety. 88% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc – a Bordelese choice for a Tuscan terroir. 26-year-old vines on clay-sandy, slightly calcareous soils, 80 quintals per hectare. Fermentation in the Guyot training system on 6,200 vines per hectare, then nine months in barriques, nine months in cement – a combination that gives the wine structure while retaining freshness. Aged in the bottle for at least six to seven months.

Petra – the name means "stone" and symbolises the solidity with which Vittorio and Francesca Moretti are realising their Tuscan project in the Maremma. The winery was only opened in 2003 and was designed by Swiss star architect Mario Botta as a circular masterpiece. While perlage reigns supreme in Franciacorta (near Bellavista), it is the great red wines of the Val di Cornia that attract international attention here. Alto is Petra's monovarietal answer to the question of what Sangiovese is capable of achieving in this iron-rich, Mediterranean terroir. Experimental research meets Tuscany's oldest grape variety. The grapes are hand-picked and vinified according to the principle of gravity – mechanical stress is consistently avoided. The wine is matured in oak barrels, followed by further ageing in the bottle.

Francesca Moretti grew up with Bellavista – her father Vittorio's Franciacorta winery, one of Italy's reference addresses for sparkling wine. What she wanted to develop in Suvereto was the opposite: great red wines in the style of Bordeaux, from a terroir that hardly anyone knew. The Potenti is her most personal commitment to this conviction – named after the vineyard in Riotorto from which the grapes come. The soils are clayey, sandy and calcareous, interspersed with coarse skeleton – a foundation that forces the Cabernet Sauvignon to root deeply and bear concentrated fruit. The vineyard lies between the foothills of the Colline Metallifere and the Tyrrhenian coast, in a climate that combines sea breezes with long, sunny autumns. After the harvest in October, the wine ferments in large oak conical barrels and matures for 18 months in French barriques – according to the best Bordelese tradition.

Grenache travels far and takes on a different name everywhere: Garnacha in Spain, Cannonau in Sardinia, Alicante on the Tuscan coast. The same Mediterranean soul everywhere – light in colour, bright red fruit, effortless drinkability. On the coast, it is one of the oldest grape varieties; in Montebamboli it has been growing for over 22 years, exposed to the south-east, on iron-rich, acidic soils at an altitude of 371 metres. This combination changes the character. What sometimes tends to be broad in warm, flat areas finds its tension on the cool, windy slopes of the Parco dei Montioni. Open fermentation vats, 20 to 30% whole bunches depending on the vintage, 20 days of maceration at 20 to 25 °C with gentle extraction – then exclusively concrete, 6 to 9 months. No wood to mask the fruit.

Cabernet Franc is a grape variety that seeks the sea. In the Loire, in Bordeaux, on Long Island – wherever maritime influences slow down ripening and maintain freshness, it finds its most convincing voice. On the Tuscan coast, it is increasingly coming to the fore: warmer coastal locations give it density and concentration; cooler, higher altitudes with acidic soils such as Montebamboli give it something else: tension, precision and a Mediterranean originality that imitates neither the Loire nor Bordeaux.

More than two centuries ago, Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi, Princess of Piombino, had something planted on the ferruginous hills above Suvereto that would change this landscape forever: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon – grape varieties from the Bordelais. The Maremma, still rough and wild at the time, became the testing ground for a woman with a feel for terroir. Francesca Moretti, daughter of Bellavista founder Vittorio, deliberately picks up on this thread with Petra. The name says it all. Petra. Stone. Consistency. 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, hand-picked from the Vigneto di Petra in San Lorenzo Alto. Limestone soils with the right balance of clay and skeleton, 10 to 15 per cent slope. Fermentation with natural yeasts in large oak vats, ageing for at least 15 months in French barriques – 25 per cent new – followed by at least 17 months in the bottle. The cellar, a structure by Mario Botta, works with gravity: no pumping, no stress.

More than two centuries ago, Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi, Princess of Piombino, had something planted on the ferruginous hills above Suvereto that would change this landscape forever: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon – grape varieties from the Bordelais. The Maremma, still rough and wild at the time, became the testing ground for a woman with a feel for terroir. Francesca Moretti, daughter of Bellavista founder Vittorio, deliberately picks up on this thread with Petra. The name says it all. Petra. Stone. Consistency. 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, hand-picked from the Vigneto di Petra in San Lorenzo Alto. Limestone soils with the right balance of clay and skeleton, 10 to 15 per cent slope. Fermentation with natural yeasts in large oak vats, ageing for at least 15 months in French barriques – 25 per cent new – followed by at least 17 months in the bottle. The cellar, a structure by Mario Botta, works with gravity: no pumping, no stress.