Eriminio Sella and Edgardo Mosca were two Piemontese gentlemen - the former an engineer, the latter a lawyer - who went hunting in Sardinia in the 1890s and ended up establishing a vine nursery in 1899 at a time when the European wine industry was being ravage by the phylloxera louse.
Plantings they made then became the I Piani wine estate not long after, and it was this estate that was eventually purchased by the Campari company, who retained the names of the founders and invested heavily in the property.
They now own one of the largest contiguous vineyards in Europe, with 1,200 acres of vines close to the port of Alghero in north-west Sardinia. The vineyard is planted with traditional Sardinian grape varieties vermentino, cannonau (aka grenache) and torbato alongside cabernet sauvignon planted in the 1950s, plus some carignan in the south of the island for their Carignano del Sulcis, aged for three years in barrel. The plantings of torbato in Sardinia, of which Sella & Mosca own the majority, are almost all the vines remaining of this rare variety, with just a few hectares left in the south of France where it is known as malvoisie du Roussillon. It makes aromatic but fresh white wines that match well with food.