Stevie Kim receives the "Lamolese DOCG 2022" award.

Lamole, the queen of Chianti Classico

The municipality of Greve in Chianti, located in the province of Florence, immediately astonishes visitors with its picturesque landscape features: combined with the microclimate of the area, these make it truly a gem of the wine region it belongs to. One of the most striking characteristics can be found in the hamlet of Lamole, where today's day trip is set: it concerns the terracing of the local hills, wide steps – lamulae, to be precise – that make the entire agricultural environment resemble an amphitheater.

Here, as Paolo Socci tells us, who has been running the La Fattoria di Lamole company since 1970, hard work has been done to restore the wine to the same flavor praised by Lorenzo de' Medici and the Carrara geographer Emanuele Repetti, encapsulating it in a production of around 15,000 bottles annually.

Lamole and the bush-trained vines

Andrea Daldin, winemaker and local producer for the brand Lamole di Lamole, recounts how since the 11th century, Lamole has been talked about as a wine production region, with excellent wines and oils already renowned in Roman times: the 37 hectares of vineyards of the company feature unique bush-trained cultivations, planted since 1945 within the parcels “Il Prato,” “Grospoli,” and “Storico” and have survived the phylloxera epidemics.

The area of Lamole is colder than the surrounding territory: this is why the bush-training method helps the vines survive the lower temperatures, “cuddling” them closer to the ground and allowing for a greater protection of the plant. As Susanna Grassi, owner of the I Fabbri company, also tells us, the terraces combine with the bush-trained systems to retain the heat of the soil and then deliver it to the plant, allowing it to utilize it during the night and achieve perfect ripeness of the grapes.

The Scents of Lamole

There have now been nineteen editions of the food and wine festival I Profumi di Lamole, born in the Lamole area to enhance the products of its hillside vineyards (reaching up to 650 meters above sea level): named after the Cultural Association that created it, the festival features the wines of “La Fattoria di Lamole,” “I Fabbri,” “Lamole di Lamole,” “Le Masse di Lamole,” the micro-winery “Jurij Fiore e Figlia,” “Castellinuzza e Piuca,” “Podere Castellinuzza,” and “Castellinuzza.”

On the occasion of this year's festival, held between June 4 and 5, I had the pleasure of receiving the honor of “Lamolese DOCG 2022” and joining the collective toast of producers, Mayor Paolo Sottani, and Tourism Councillor Giulio Saturnini: the appointment for all readers is set for the first weekend of June 2023, for the XX edition of the event.

Cheers

Stevie Kim