Moresco comes from a winegrowing family in Montà, Piedmont, and studied viticulture and oenology in Alba – directly between the star regions of Barolo and Barbaresco. Rather than returning to her roots after graduating from the University of Turin in 2014, she headed to New Zealand, where the winemaking approach differs starkly from the Italian tradition. “In Italy, especially in Piedmont where I am from, winemakers are deeply rooted in their ways, often reluctant to change,” she says. “However, my craft was refined in New Zealand, where I learned the art of precision in winemaking. This balance – between tradition and technical mastery – defines my approach. I have learned to challenge convention and question long-standing practices.” Vintages in Germany and Australia followed before her first Hunter Valley harvest in 2016. By October 2017 she was assistant winemaker at Krinklewood; by March 2018, head winemaker. She has not looked back.
“Since I came to Australia, I have only worked in the Hunter Valley. The climate here can be demanding, but the challenge is part of what makes it so rewarding.”
The Hunter suited her from the start, despite – or because of – its demands. “The climate here can be demanding, but the challenge is part of what makes it so rewarding,” she says. “The Hunter has a deep winemaking heritage – there is the old, the traditional, the ‘we have always done it this way’ – but also a new wave of young winemakers eager to take the best of the past and refine it for the future.” Krinklewood’s certified organic and biodynamic credentials – farming to those standards since 2005, certified since 2007 – aligned perfectly with Moresco’s philosophy. “This approach has had a profound impact on the fruit, enhancing its purity and balance while allowing the vineyard to truly express its unique character.”
Her recent promotion to General Manager has deepened that connection still further. Alongside the winemaking, she now oversees the vineyard, grounds and the estate’s livestock – cattle and sheep – giving her a genuinely holistic view of how all parts of the farm interact with the wines. “This has given me a deeper involvement in the day-to-day life of the farm,” she says. It is, as she describes it, a logical extension of the belief that great wine is an expression of a whole living system rather than a winery process.
“Semillon presents a completely different challenge. All you need to do is hard work in the vineyard, choosing the perfect picking date, getting the chemistry just right, and executing the winemaking with absolute precision and focus – and then you’re done!”
The wines reflect that breadth. The core range spans semillon, chardonnay, verdelho and shiraz, made with the precision Moresco learned in New Zealand and the respect for variety she absorbed in Italy. The Basket Press Semillon – made with extended time on lees in barrel to build texture and richness while preserving the variety’s signature elegance – is a particular focus. “Precision is key,” she says of semillon. “Coming from a red winemaking background in Italy, I quickly realised that semillon presents a completely different challenge – one with little room for error. All you need to do is hard work in the vineyard, choosing the perfect picking date, getting the chemistry just right, and executing the winemaking with absolute precision and focus – and then you’re done. Nothing is left to chance; you create your own destiny with this wine.”
The Sauvage Orange skin-contact wine has been the most iterative project in the range, dialled in across successive vintages through trial and genuine error. What began as an oak-fermented gewürztraminer that accidentally underwent malolactic fermentation – the conversion of sharper malic acid to softer lactic acid – in bottle, producing something pét-nat-like that people loved but Moresco knew she could improve, has evolved through stainless steel experimentation and back to 100% oak fermentation and maturation to find its balance. “It really highlighted the importance of giving each wine the time and environment it needs to develop its true character,” she says. For the current vintage, the Sauvage Orange returns to 100% gewürztraminer – a change from the recent verdelho-dominant blend – and is being made in collaboration with an artist who will use the grape skins themselves to create the label painting. Carbonic maceration – a technique where whole uncrushed grapes ferment in a carbon dioxide-rich environment, producing wines that are light, fruity and low in tannin – is being trialled on a pinot noir from Orange. The non-alcoholic wine program, made using a gentle dealcoholisation process to remove alcohol while preserving the wine’s flavour and structure, is gaining significant momentum.
Moresco is a rationalist at heart, but not a cold one. “I chase perfection in every wine I make,” she says. “I refuse to settle for mediocrity or compromise. I craft wines that I love to drink.” The longer-term vision is increasingly Italian in character: small parcels of nebbiolo and barbera adapted to the Hunter Valley conditions, collaboration with artists and other creatives to tell stories through the labels, and wines that are, as she puts it, “authentic, expressive and full of personality.” One of her biggest dreams is still to convince the owner to plant nebbiolo. Given what she has already achieved at Krinklewood, it would be unwise to bet against her.
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