Storia
The family estate
Fattoria Villa l’Olmo entered the family’s ownership in the middle of the 18th century. This began a long agricultural tradition in the hills around Impruneta, initially centred above all on extra-virgin olive oil. The Giannotti family’s presence and activity in the Impruneta area likewise date from the 1700s. Villa L’Olmo remains the family’s country residence and an important historical and emotional point of reference.
The nineteenth-century mill
The estate’s first olive mill was installed toward the end of the 19th century. Oxen turned its stone millstones; oil was extracted with manual presses, while water was separated from the oil by natural settling in large terracotta basins. Later mechanisation changed individual stages of production, but the estate retained stone milling, cold extraction and manual harvesting as defining elements of its approach.
The Galleria Filtrante
In the middle of the 19th century, an underground aqueduct known as the Galleria Filtrante was excavated in the local stone and earth of Impruneta. It was subsequently repurposed as an ageing cellar. Its naturally stable temperature and humidity now provide the final maturation environment for Villa L’Olmo wine.
A wine tied to the family residence
The Villa L’Olmo wine project was created as a tribute to the Giannotti family’s history and its relationship with Impruneta. The wine brings together Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot grown in vineyards at Impruneta. Its label depicts Villa L’Olmo, the country residence in which the family still lives.
A production of 2,520 bottles was placed in the Galleria Filtrante for at least six months. Villa L’Olmo became available in January 2025, establishing a direct link between the family residence, the Impruneta vineyards and the historic underground structure used for maturation.
Terroir
Fattoria Villa l’Olmo lies at Impruneta in the Tuscan hills of Chianti. Its vineyards and historic olive groves occupy the surrounding hilly landscape, while the Candegli olive selection comes from a specifically named area within Impruneta.
The estate’s most clearly defined environmental feature is underground: the Galleria Filtrante was excavated in the characteristic stone and earth of Impruneta in the middle of the 19th century. It maintains a constant temperature of approximately 14°C and natural humidity of about 95%, conditions used for the final maturation of Villa L’Olmo. The underground environment requires no artificial climate control for this stage.
Vinificazione
Wine grapes are grown in the Impruneta vineyards and harvested manually at full ripeness after careful selection.
The estate also manages approximately 23 ha of olive groves planted with Moraiolo, Frantoio, Leccino and Pendolino. Olive trees are pruned every two years. Harvesting is manual and follows the maturity of the fruit, normally beginning in late October and continuing through the first ten days of November. The fruit is kept intact and milled on the day of harvest in the estate’s own mill.
Villa L’Olmo is made from manually harvested Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot grown at Impruneta. After careful selection, the grapes are gently destemmed and softly crushed, then vinified in temperature-controlled vessels.
Fermentation is spontaneous, driven by yeasts naturally present on the grapes. Skin contact lasts approximately four weeks, with daily pump-overs to extract compounds from the skins. After separation from the skins, spontaneous malolactic fermentation takes place partly in stainless steel and partly in barrique.
The current maturation sequence comprises 18 months in French-oak barriques followed by four months in terracotta amphorae. The wine then spends at least six months in the Galleria Filtrante at Impruneta, where the temperature remains around 14°C and natural humidity is approximately 95%. This subterranean maturation stage uses the gallery’s natural conditions rather than artificial environmental control.
The wine undergoes neither fining nor stabilisation, preserving its organoleptic characteristics before bottling.
Filosofia
The family presents its work as a union of agricultural tradition, attachment to Impruneta and selective innovation. Villa L’Olmo is conceived as an expression of the family’s historical residence and the surrounding territory, while its production combines spontaneous fermentation and French oak with local terracotta and maturation in a 19th-century underground aqueduct.
Environmental restraint is embodied by the use of the Galleria Filtrante, whose naturally stable temperature and humidity provide an ageing environment without artificial climate control. In olive-oil production, the guiding principle is equally direct: preserve the fruit through manual harvesting, process it on the day of harvest and obtain the oil by cold extraction while maintaining the traditional stone-mill system.