This is the case of Roberto Matzeu, founder of the Azienda Agricola Piede Franco, who has turned the recovery of abandoned vineyards on the island of Sant'Antioco into a real life mission.
\nToday, his company is one of the most important in the area, with a focus on tradition and innovation.<\/p>\n
\"My name is Roberto Matzeu and I am the owner of Azienda Agricola Piede Franco.
\nToday, the company is one of the largest on the island of Sant'Antioco, given its approximately 5 hectares of vineyards, most of which are planted with Carignano and piede Franco.
\nThey are, therefore, historic vineyards that have escaped abandonment and that I personally have been recovering for the past 15 years'.<\/p>\n
\"I started around 2005 as an enthusiast of vineyard restoration and recovery.
\nFrom here, I realised that this was the correct path for my future work and consequently continued.
\nIn life I was doing something else entirely: I was studying engineering. So, the field was totally different.
\nThen, playfully and with a mix of luck perhaps, in 2013 I was named best winegrower in Italy in the under-35 category, thanks to a special project presented on the recovery of abandoned historical vineyards. From there, my profession was born.
\nThen, I was noticed by Cantina Sardus Pater, a local winery that believed in me, and assigned me an important job: that of wine technician and laboratory technician.
\nIn 2015, the Azienda Agricola Piede Franco was physically born, and from there, hectares and hectares grew every year until a structured company was built.
\nStarting in 2019, the winery began its winemaking project with its two references, Bellesa and Perdularju, with the future ambition of doing something bigger as a winery, then building my own winery.\"<\/p>\n
\"It all stemmed from a desire not to see this land abandoned, aided by the fact that I was fully aware that where you look now, there used to be vineyards.
\nSo, from the moment I got to know perhaps the most negative side of abandonment on the island, this input was born.<\/p>\n
I can assure you that in the beginning it was also difficult to get abandoned vineyards on loan, lease or otherwise under management. It was in fact preferable, in the mentality of the time, to keep them abandoned rather than give them up and snatch them from certain death.
\nThat is why I started this journey: my own company is called Azienda Agricola Piede Franco because the project was precisely to protect this historical heritage.<\/p>\n
Today, 20 years later, we realise that we had something very important on our hands that must be protected and is worth protecting, because it is a source of work for many and can create an economy.<\/p>\n
Not least, it is what we are going to build behind these activities.
\nI didn't just focus on the traditional part, so I didn't just want to run the vineyards as they were, because in any case today from this work you also have to make an income and you have to project yourself into the future. So, by making a few improvements and going to work better, we have reached 2025 while keeping some principles rooted in tradition, so as not to upset a very important territory.
\nThat is why, when building new plantings, we almost always try to look carefully at what has always been done traditionally, to ensure that the conduction and quality of the grapes we are going to produce still have a continuous thread with what are the historical ways, despite the fact that these are young vineyards.\"<\/p>\n
\"Today's biggest challenge is not dictated by what I would personally like to achieve, but is to be able to produce and continue to maintain the quality of the grapes that are produced in these vineyards, while clashing with what is climate change, because we are encountering situations that are becoming increasingly harsh at the production level. For example, the drought, in recent years, is becoming really heavy and even for the vines, which for centuries have been raised in a dry regime, therefore without any help from artificial irrigation, suffering is beginning.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there are some tricks we can put in place, also provided by science: anti-stress products, zeolites and other products that allow us to take a very natural, non-chemical approach to trying to soothe and help the plants during the major production phase.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, they are hardy plants that are used to these fairly extreme situations and this makes it easier for us. However, it is becoming complicated to produce: production yields are down and often if one is not careful it becomes unprofitable, if not negative, to produce in these situations because it is more of an expense than a gain.
\nBut it is a challenge to continue and try to carry on, balancing everything.\"<\/p>\n
\"The good thing is that I do a job that I love and, as they say, if you do a job that you love, the job weighs less on you.
\nThe downside, on the other hand, is that we work outdoors, so when it rains, when it's cold and when it's hot. This is part of the game, like the handicaps of any job.
\nBut it's what I wanted to do so I'm happy and I try to do it the best I can.
\nSome bad days will always be there but there are also many happy good ones.
\nIt is what I have always dreamed of doing.\"<\/p>\n
\"A childhood memory is related to my grandparents, when the grape harvest was experienced as a feast and when there would be a table set under this tree waiting for the end of the half-day to eat all together.
\nThese are customs that have been somewhat lost, but which were part of that deep-rooted tradition and culture that no one forbids us to recreate in the right way and perhaps make the work part more enjoyable because then there would be that convivial and playful activity, which in any case in my opinion is the most important part of this job.
\nWine, the world of wine, is aggregation and unity and that is the ultimate goal in my opinion of this work.<\/p>\n
My only regret is not being able to experience grandparents in adulthood because I would have liked to show them what I am doing today. Everything would have been nicer and more interesting.\"<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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