History
Origins of the project
Chiara Condello’s project grew from her sense of responsibility for a winegrowing tradition cultivated and handed down in the hills of Predappio for hundreds of years. She set out to interpret this territory in a personal and deliberately pared-back way, producing Sangiovese that would express the potential of its vineyards without superfluous intervention and embody her own ideas about winegrowing and winemaking.
For the project she selected a small area beside the forest, in the heart of the Predappio denomination. This became the foundation for wines conceived as readings of the place’s elevation, ancient marine geology and calcareous-clay soils rich in the locally named Spungone rock.
Development of the working approach
The project was organized around organic viticulture and artisanal cellar management. Daily attention to the vines, manual work, organic fertilization, mechanical weed control and restrained crop-protection treatments were adopted to deliver healthy, fully mature grapes requiring no correction in the cellar.
The same preference for simplicity shaped production: grapes are harvested by hand, fermentation vessels are filled by gravity, fermentations begin spontaneously with indigenous yeasts, temperature control is absent or minimal, and macerations are long. Manual devatting employs a restored press dating from the beginning of the twentieth century. Maturation in oak is followed by further development in bottle, with the wines bottled without filtration.
Terroir
The vineyards occupy a small area adjoining a forest in the heart of the Predappio denomination, between 150 and 300 m above sea level.
The vines root deeply in poor, calcareous-clay soil containing Pliocene tufaceous sandstone locally called Spungone. The land was covered by the sea approximately three million years ago, and this ancient marine origin is central to the project’s interpretation of place.
The Le Lucciole parcel lies on a steep, east-facing limestone ridge. Its position near the forest, pronounced slope and calcareous geology distinguish it within the broader group of parcels.
Winemaking
Viticulture follows organic principles and is centered on close, daily observation of the vineyards. All vineyard operations are performed manually. Fertilization uses organic materials, while weed control is mechanical rather than chemical.
Crop-protection treatments involve very low quantities of sulphur and copper. The overriding objective is to maintain healthy, balanced vineyards and harvest sound, fully mature grapes that can enter the cellar without corrective treatment.
Sangiovese is planted at 5,500 vines per hectare and trained to spur-pruned cordon in both the Le Lucciole parcel and the parcels used for the Chiara Condello range. Harvesting is manual; fruit from Le Lucciole is collected in 15 kg cases.
Cellar work is governed by respect for the grapes and for the time required by Sangiovese. The process is intended to retain differences among sites and vintages rather than impose a standardized profile.
Fermentation vessels are filled by gravity. Fermentations begin spontaneously through indigenous yeasts, with absent or minimal temperature control, and macerations are deliberately long. Devatting is performed manually with a restored press dating from the beginning of the twentieth century.
Wood and stainless steel are both used across the range. Oak maturation includes Slavonian oak casks; maturation is subsequently completed in bottle. The wines are bottled without filtration.
Philosophy
Chiara Condello’s stated aim is to find an authentic expression of the land, its history and its character. She envisions luminous, pure wines shaped by the unrepeatable combination of each vintage and its originating terroir, with superfluous elements removed rather than added.
The project rejects practices that could standardize the wines. Its preferred sources of diversity are the individual growing season, the vineyard, indigenous yeasts, long maceration and restrained cellar intervention. Organic viticulture and artisanal cellar management are treated as connected parts of the same objective.
Respect begins in the vineyard: healthy and balanced vines should provide mature grapes that need no correction after harvest. In the cellar, the same principle means gentle gravity handling, patience with Sangiovese, manual work and unfiltered bottling.