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In 1997, Vittorio Moretti bought a property on Bellavista Hill in Erbusco, near Brescia. He had been looking forward to building his house surrounded by vineyards in a nice place and he quite obviously made the right choice: from that very relief the panorama is absolutely spectacular, including the Iseo Lake, the Padania Plains and the Alps Mountain Range.

Over the years, his company has constantly grown, carefully researching and selecting the best-exposed vineyards – on some 469 acres, organized in 107 plots and located in 10 different municipalities of Franciacorta. This is a hilly area, once covered with woods, is enclosed rocky and morainic hills, the Oglio River, the shores of Lake Iseo, the last offshoots of the Rhaetian Alps, and Mount Orfano.

“Franciacorta” actually comes from Latin “curtes francae”: the “curtes” were the main centres of medieval trade, while “francae” means “duty-free”; that is to say, those small communities of Benedictine monks in Middle Ages were exempt from paying taxes on their trade, in exchange for the reclamation of their territories. On those lands, they taught farming and cultivation techniques to the peasants.

In this large farm, the spontaneous vegetation is quite variegated, including about 130 spontaneous plant species distributed in deciduous forests, pastures, meadows and mixed hedges.

The soils originated by the erosive action of the water over the millennia and the deposits of earth and stone from the glaciers. Last but not least, these morainic hills have always hosted vines.

The cultivation of these vineyards is done in full compliance with Mother Nature’s laws and pace, thus obtaining well-balanced, but also quite complex wines, now a true tradition of Bellavista.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)