THE BEAUTY OF OUR COUNTRY
ACCORDING TO PROFESSOR LUIGI MOIO

By Stefano Borelli

Professor Moio, do you share the idea that Italian landscapes were also shaped by vineyards?
Viticulture has made a very important contribution in shaping the Italian landscape. We have an incredible variety of climatic conditions, from the Alps to Sicily. With an enormous range of geographical contexts and soils ranging from limestone to volcanic soils, to those with rocky clay. There is every possible variety and a large number of vines have adapted to these different realities. The French ampelographic platform, on the other hand, rests on ten to a maximum of twelve vines, which are then to be found all over the world and thus became the so-called “international vines”. We have many more and all are exclusive to our country.

How would you define our country?
I would say that Italy is an open-air museum of vines and farming systems. Man had to adapt to each area. There are areas with “pergola” terraces, flatter areas with a sapling system, hills with row systems such as “guyot” and limestone spurs. These days we should use this moment of isolation to reflect on how beautiful our Peninsula is. Everyone has always wanted to travel abroad, to take airplanes, thereby often neglecting our own country which, as we all know, is the most beautiful in the world.

Does wine therefore represent beauty?
Italy is a country of absolute beauty, of harmony. Just think of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Botticelli, as well as cities, villages, mountains, hills, coasts. The world of wine reflects this beauty, which is sometimes envied abroad. The charm of wine also exists in its variability: there are actually no comparable wines, which are similar to each other. They are related to different contexts, but also to the richness of Italian food.
Our gastronomy has different and special characteristics throughout the country and wine becomes essential, since there is no doubt that no other alcoholic beverage in the world goes so perfectly with food. Wine is an absolute paradigm of diversity, or rather of biodiversity, and many wine lovers are probably attracted by it being “anti-standard”, in an increasingly uniform and globalized world.