Launegild Blanco - Chardonnay (22)

Chardonnay | single vineyard | aangeplant in 1926 | terroir van kalk | vergisting en rijping voor 12 maanden in grote gebruikte eikenhouten vaten | fris | zacht | zilt | smokey | kruiden | groene appel | rijpe peer | spanning | mooie zuren

When Stefano first arrived in Loreto he was puzzled by the vineyard planted to Chardonnay. As far as he knew there was no tradition of Chardonnay in the area. After researching it more closely, he learned of Don Carlino's travels to France in the 1930s and the subsequent planting. The De Fermo's Chardonnay vineyard is one of the oldest  of Chardonnay in Italy planted on a calcareous terroir.
The link between the vineyard and France doesn't stop with Don Carlino. Stefano found documents from the 9th century in the university library regarding the transfer of the vineyard from a French family to the Catholic church. The transaction was completed through a Lombardian system known as "Launegild", denoting the vineyard's transfer as being a donation and not a sale. The wine is named after the system that made it possible for the vineyard to be passed down to the current generation.

De Fermo

De Fermo is het verhaal van Stefano en zijn vrouw Eloisa. Beiden voordat het wijnmaak avontuur begon werkzaam in de juridische wereld in Bologna. De familie van Eloisa heeft een wijngaard in de Abruzzen en in 2007 gaan ze daar samen op bezoek. Stefano is direct verliefd op de plek en besluit hier wijn te gaan maken. In eerste instantie maar met een klein deel van de wijngaarden, maar in 2009 nemen Eloisa en Stefano het hele bedrijf over en starten ze ook direct met de conversie naar biodynamie. Nu zijn de wijngaarden biologisch en biodynamisch gecertificeerd. 
Later vind Stefano begraven onder het oude huis een meer dan 200 jaar oude kelder. Hij is dit gaan uitgraven en restaureren en vanaf 2010 worden hier de wijnen gemaakt. 
De wijngaarden zijn vooral beplant met Montepulciano en Pecorino (beiden tipisch voor de regio) maar ook Chardonnay staat aangeplant. Deze wijngaard is al in 1926 aangeplant door de oom van Eloisa en is een van de oudste Chardonnay wijngaarden van Italië!

Review

An air of smoke and crushed rocks blows off to reveal lime-tinged green apple and nuances of fresh mint as the 2020 Chardonnay Launegild comes to life in the glass. This is savory more than sweet, yet silken in texture with vivid notes of Asian pear and a salty flourish toward the finale. The 2020 finishes lightly structured and with tension, while keeping the mouth watering for more. The fruit here is more pronounced than usual due to the warmth of the year, but the balance is fantastic. Give it another year in bottle to develop a bit more. 91/100 Eric Guido

Stefano Papetti Ceroni of De Fermo speaks about biodynamics, biodiversity and low intervention with an intensity that is seldom seen. The De Fermo vineyards are located in Loreto Aprutino, between the mountains and the sea at 300-330 meters above sea level. The property has been in Eloisa De Fermo’s, Papetti Ceroni’s wife, family for over 100 years. Prior to Ceroni’s decision in 2007 to begin making wine as a hobby, all of the fruit was sold off to larger wineries. The vineyards themselves were tended to organically, and it was a natural progression to eventually create a fully biodynamic farm. Today, De Fermo is no longer a hobby; it’s a passion, and possibly even an obsession, to create wines through the most natural means possible. Varieties of ancient grains, flowers and grasses all grow within the vineyards and are used with a mixture of manure to create their own natural humus fertilizer. Raw milk treatments are sprayed on the vines in replacement of copper and sulfur. Stefano Papetti Ceroni explained, “My wines are not technological.” Grapes are destemmed by hand, followed by spontaneous fermentation in open-top wood tini for 30 to 40 days, and without temperature control. During the winemaking process, there’s no malolactic fermentation, no yeast, no clarification nor filtration, and just a small amount of sulfur is used; Ceroni matures his wines in a combination of neutral Tonneaux, large 20-hL barrels and concrete. While some may think that his practices are very risky, the results really are wines that feel “alive”. Speaking of concrete, along with a growing number of producers in the region, Ceroni has been unhappy with the way that Montepluciano d’Abruzzo is viewed throughout much of the world, being lumped together with large-production and low-quality producers, and so he created his “Concrete” lineup that features just a pure, unadulterated Montepulciano of terroir, without any mention of the DOC. While I believe that further classification of quality across the region would be a better alternative, the Concrete really does show an importance of place.