Fabio Motta

Four hectares under his own name

The first decision was land: in 2009, Fabio Motta, winemaker at Fabio Motta in Castagneto Carducci, bought 4 hectares inside Bolgheri DOC. The vineyard was Le Pievi, set at the foot of the hills with a view toward the Mediterranean, and it gave the estate its first grammar: Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah and Sangiovese rooted in sandy loam and sedimentary clay. Motta had come to Bolgheri from Lombardia after studying agronomy, then spent a five-year apprenticeship under Michele Satta, the Bolgheri producer who later became his father-in-law. That training matters here because the place is not built around scale. It is built around proximity, the vineyard as the first bench and the cellar as the second. Motta remains owner and founder, with his role fixed to the same agricultural estate he established in 2009. The later addition of La Vignanova, in the Fornacelle area, gave him a white-grape site for Vermentino, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc. The house keeps the work close to its own land: 100% of the fruit comes from estate vineyards.

Indigenous yeast and no polish

The method at Fabio Motta begins before the fruit reaches the cellar. The vineyards have been converting to biodynamic viticulture since 2015, with attention paid to the relationship among soil, water, plant growth and fruit. In a place often read through Bolgheri’s Bordeaux inheritance, Motta keeps both international and local varieties in the program: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Sangiovese, Vermentino, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc. In the cellar, he works with indigenous yeast and avoids fining and filtering, choices that leave more texture in the wines and less imprint from correction. Le Pievi remains one anchor. La Vignanova gives the white wines their material. Le Gonnare, acquired in 2012, is the more selective red site, a small vineyard rich in clay and stones on a gentle slope; its Bolgheri Superiore is built from 85% Merlot and 15% Syrah. The house names Le Gonnare, Pievi, Le Pievi and Lo Scudiere among its signature wines, and the total annual production is capped at 40,000 bottles.

A quiet cellar above the sea

The estate reads as a working Bolgheri address rather than a visitor complex. The vineyard visit and guided tasting move through a small, artisan setting, with the hills behind and the Mediterranean below the line of sight. The quiet is part of the discipline. In the cellar, the hands-off approach is not theatrical; it shows in what Motta chooses not to add, not to strip out, not to correct into sameness. The tasting room belongs to that same register, closer to an agricultural house than a polished salon. The wines carry the place through blends that Bolgheri understands well, yet the estate keeps returning to its own parcels, Le Pievi for the founding red material, La Vignanova for white grapes, Le Gonnare for the clay and stones.

The estate after the share change

In July 2024, Agricole Gussalli Beretta acquired a controlling share in the winery, while Motta remained the creative force tied to the wines. The useful continuity is on the tools: biodynamic farming, estate fruit, indigenous fermentation and the refusal to fine or filter. If the next chapter changes the frame around the estate, the cellar still has to answer to Le Gonnare.