At the heart of a Vin de Garage is a love of wine: and this Love is the one that has always motivated Andrea Sala, the owner and winemaker of Pietramatta, a once garagiste and still innovative artisan winemaker, to start his adventure in the wine world, just because of his passion for something that he considers truly special, winemaking. Nevertheless, high quality never stems from chance, but comes through constant commitment and a long journey, often encompassing brave and extreme choices and questioning the state of the art. A path that eventually led to excellent and precision winemaking delivering premium brilliant wines, extracting the potential of the territory and added attention to the details that go into making fine wine.
Andrea Sala started to work in the “business” of wine in the 1990s managing the family’s vineyard lands on the Loreto hill in Cenate Sotto, in the Bergamasque region of Italy but everything started earlier, when he was just a boy and used to play and experiment with grapes with his brother in the neighbouring vineyards of a local farmer. “When we were caught, my father decided to buy some vineyards and let us work on them, but at the beginning I wasn’t thinking about that as a career but more as a passion, dedicating it only my free time” tells Andrea Sala. His time in the vineyards, though, increased with the time, along with his passion.
“I began a self-taught education with studies in tasting, viticulture and enology and educational trips to all the world’s major wine areas. Later I attended Marco Simonit’s Italian School of Vine Pruning and an enology course taught by Christophe Gerland, former technical director of the Station Enotechnique de Champagne. But it was Denis Deubordieu from the University of Bordeaux who has most influenced my education. In Dubordieu’s monumental thesis on Enology, I found unparalleled scientific, theoretical and practical insights into the main Bordeaux grape varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc).”
Hence, he started the renewal of his family’s vineyard stock, which was gradually transformed into model plantings, with high densities, very low-yielding but extremely qualitative clones and rootstocks, and vertical and horizontal branching pruning systems. “During this period I engaged in the most extreme experimentation, from the different types of cultivars planted to the different winemaking systems, often micro-winemaking or even, as I like to say, “nano-winemaking” recalls Andrea Sala.
And in no time at all, he soon became one of the so called “vins de garage” producer: in 2013 he joined the “garage wine” circuit and in the same year he was able to achieve the first place in the national Garage Wine Contest in Genova (in front of a tasting jury including nonetheless than renowned winemaker and producer Mario Pojer and winemaker Claudia Donegaglia) with two wines in their respective categories: the Pietramatta Rosso 2011 and the Pietramatta Bianco 2012.
“Encouraged by the successes achieved in the “vins de garage” circuit and strengthened by an experience of almost thirty years, I decided to take a leap into the dark by setting myself the goal of creating only exclusive wines that stand out in their respective categories not only at the local level, with the awareness that the terroir of the Bergamo hills was and is still extremely underestimated and that hides a very interesting unexpressed potential” Andrea Sala remarks.
In 2019 he started the organic conversion of the winery and planted Souvigner Gris and Sauvignon Nepis PIWI vines, naturally resistant to the main fungal diseases, with the firm belief that, after adequate experimentation, these vines could represent “the future of viticulture, both in terms of environmental sustainability and organoleptic qualities“. In the old vineyards there are also native grape varieties such as Moscato di Scanzo and international ones such as Sauvignon Blanc and Bordeaux. Pietramatta today is a member of the PIWI Italia and PIWI International associations (read here my article on PIWI wines triumph at Vinitaly).
Everything at Pietramatta is about natural methods, peculiar grapevines, terroir, niche production. “I like to call my wines “integrali (whole) – explains Sala – because I strive to both take away and add as little as possible to what I get from my vines, but also because I take care of them integrally from the planting to the bottle.
Pietramatta vineyards lie on top of the hill in Cenate Sotto (Bg) on Colle di Loreto at almost 400 mt on a terroir made of Sass de la Luna, which the locals nicknamed “Pietra matta”, a calcareous marl created 100 million years ago by marine sedimentation, that on the surface generates a clay-limestone soil that has the characteristic of absorbing water and slowly releasing it. The vineyards also enjoy ideal exposure and constant ventilation. Particularly significant is the ‘temperature range that occurs during the ripening of the grapes, when scorching summer days are soothed by cool nights thanks to the downhill wind influence from nearby Mount Misma, allowing the grapes to get distinct aromatic finesse and allowing for excellent acidity and therefore freshness, even in the presence of full phenolic and sugar maturity.
“The choices I have made in plantings and vineyard management are marked by a single goal: to maximize quality without compromise. Therefore I pursue low yields per vine, constant and timely pruning, fertilisation only with organic products, no use of chemicals”. Remarkable is the way in which Andrea Sala prunes his vines: he slides downhill on a wooden sleigh handmade by him in order to see the vines from the bottom side to the upper one, hence allowing him to a precision and meticulous management.
Pietramatta Amber (Orange wine): a Souvignier gris star
Amber is an Orange wine from Souvignier gris that is lightly macerated 7 days in the spherical amphora Clayver, thus creating a beautiful golden color with silky amber hues. On the nose Amber is intense and aromatic combining the fruit sweetness and spiciness of orange peel, tangerine juice, quince and chestnut and on the palate revealing its unique character of dried fruit, tea leaves, citrus honey, oriental spices and raisin. Nicely balanced and elegant, intriguing on the palate, it has a fine finish, satisfyingly persistent. Amber has recently won important awards: from the gold medal at the PIWI International Wine Challenge in 2022 to the Rosa D’Oro, the highest accolade of Guida Viniplus AIS (Associazione Italiana Sommelier) and was one of the most popular wines at the OrangeWineFestival @Vinitaly (read more here) on Monday April 3, this year open to attendance and featuring ecologically conscious winemakers – many of whom are pioneers in natural and sustainable production – in this wine niche, which is important both as a signpost for sustainable and eco-friendly production as a draw for new fans who want to be closer to nature.
One of the most sought after and unexpected reward came in January 2023 when, Andrea Sala and his brother Alessandro, owner adnd winemaker at «Nove Lune» in Cenate Sopra, were honoured to give a special lecture at the University of Cambridge, telling about their pioneering and innovative work on the enhancement of resistant grape varieties in front of no less than Château Lafite-Rothschild, Champagne Louis Roderer, Opus One, Chateau Tertre Roteboeuf. And guess what? There was such an interested audience for them. “Sharing our projects at the Cambridge University Wine Society was an ‘incredible experience. Talking about resistant vines and our experiments sparked great interest and sincere curiosity in an audience accustomed to tasting sacred monsters of world oenology. Luckily, we had excellent interpreters with us, our wines” Andrea Sala confessed. The conference was held in the premises of the Cambridge University Wine Society (CUWS) the membership club that features names such as Hugh Johnson, and belonging to Registered Clubs & Societies of the University of Cambridge, England, founded in 1792.
Andrea Sala and his brother Alessandro are credited as two of the leaders of the resistant varieties movement, winemakers rebelling against traditional methods, be it in Lombardia or beyond. And their work has renown and respect from many winemakers. So if you want to taste the roots of a brilliant revolution in wine and a true love for winemaking then Pietramatta and Novelune wines are for you.
