Sella

The Sella wine estates are one of the oldest active Italian wine producers. The Sella family has produced wine in Lessona from their own vineyards since 1671.  Over the next three centuries, the Sella  family has kept the estate intact and its cellars still hold old vintages of these wines.

Today the estate still maintains its original artisanal scale and is still devoted to the limited production of high-quality wine. These wines come from approximately 20 hectares of estate vineyards, of which 80,000 bottles of wine are produced annually, due to very low yields.

Lessona and Bramaterra are located in northern Piedmont, in the foothills of the Alpine mountains. This area covers the western part of a circle of noble wine-producing areas, made unique by their porphyric soils, that extends from Gattinara to Boca. With the Langa and Valtellina, these constitute the three classic areas for the production of Nebbiolo. The vineyards of northern Piedmont offer a cooler climate and soils that are richer in minerals when compared to the soils of Barolo and Barbaresco. The terroirs of Lessona and Bramaterra interact best with the Nebbiolo grape, resulting in a very distinctive bouquet. The typical aromas of Nebbiolo here are enriched by a characteristic ferrous minerality. This quality gives the wines marked and well defined mineral savor, rare in Italy and not less striking than that of the great red wines of Burgundy and Loire. Clear balsamic notes are present, too, with mint, ginger and spices like white pepper. Other distinguishing aromas include floral notes such as geranium, and citrus (citron, bergamot). Structurally these wines are lighter and more elegant than those of Barolo and Barbaresco, with tannins that are perfectly incorporated even when young, particularly in Lessona; in Bramaterra the wines retain a marked incisiveness.

Lessona has been for decades a very rare Italian version of an “AOC monopole”, an appellation almost entirely owned by one producer, Sella. Historically, the granting of the DOC was an official recognition of the history of the estate, particularly of the passion of the family which has always believed in their land.

The Sella family produces eight wines, made principally of Nebbiolo. The four top wines are made from grapes grown in vineyards that are at least forty years old, with parcels that are more than 80 years old, particularly the Lessona vineyard called San Sebastiano allo Zoppo. The grapes from young vines of Lessona and Bramaterra are combined to make the estate second wine: L´Orbello.

The high average age of these vineyards naturally tends to produce very low yields, in the order of 1.5 tons per acre (35 quintali of grapes per hectare).
In the old vineyards in northern Piedmont Nebbiolo is never planted by itself. It is always found with some rows of Vespolina, Croatina, or Uva Rara. For this reason, wines from Lessona and Bramaterra consist of a majority of Nebbiolo with a small percentage of the traditional local varieties.

Sella vinifies in a classical style. “Classical” doesn’t mean “old”. The technique of vinification and the technology used in the cellar are continually updated, always being sure to guarantee the best results. At Sella the word “classical” means that we prize the most authentic characteristics of the terroir and the vines, expressed by gentle extraction and aging in neutral wood.