Petra

When you first glimpse Petra from across the valley, it seems at once like a modern place of worship and at the same time evokes something of antiquity. In fact, it is a winery that is but one of the latest projects of the Moretti family. The others being construction, luxury boat building, and other wineries, including L'Andana, which I spoke about in an earlier blog. Everything the Moretti's seem to do is first rate. Vittorio Moretti is the titular head of the entire enterprise with his three daughters each heading one of the business divisions. The building was designed by Swiss architect, Mario Botta, who has collaborated with Mr. Moretti on other projects.

A friend in Italy arranged for us to have a visit after I tasted the most splendid vino dolce from Petra that they brought over for dinner one afternoon. Research on the Internet peaked my interest further. We were lucky enough to have the winery's senior winemaker, Augusto, give us a three-hour tour and tasting. Augusto heads up the winemaking with the help of a handful of workers. Augusto is a young, bright winemaker who trained at the enology school in Pisa (the first) and brings intelligence and passion to his art. Visiting the winery was one of the highlights of our stay in the Maremma.