2Vite

2Vite translates as the “two lives” of the enologist Vincenzo Mercurio and the zany and lovable Professor of Enology and Microbiology at Palermo, Giancarlo Moschetti. Prof Moschetti has numerous scholarly publications that keep us up at night, such as Dissemination of Wine-Related Yeasts by Migratory Birds (2011), and he’s also written many scientific publications about native yeast pied de cuve in fermentation. He’s been the Prof – the moniker Italian students endearingly use for their professors – for more than a few producers whose wines we like to drink (Beppe Grasso, Aldo Viola, Cataldo Calabretta, etc.)

Obviously Prof Moschetti and Mercurio do this as a side-gig, a project to make a wine they love from vineyards they love. Total production is only around 1,000 bottles a year. The wine is a blend of two Campanian varieties Aglianico and Piedirosso: Aglianico give the bones and smokey/mineral complexity, the Piedirosso makes everything elegant, with an extra dash of salt and red fruits. The Aglianico come from Taurasi, a gift from Prof Moschetti’s wife; the Piedirosso is from Lettere, the property of Mercurio’s wife. Thank goodness for the women!

We love to see these two gifted professors putting their skills out there for students to see, and it’s something that we want to support. How cool is it to see Prof Moschetti wading in the fermenting must of Aglianico, trodding down the cap, while imploring his student to smell the gleeful profumi coming from the vats. (All this while thinking, and studying, the microbiology of native ferments.) The natural wine world needs more professors like this!