Yes, you got it right: wine. Lake Como might not be Chiantishire, yet it can offer the visitor a broad choice of interesting wines, mostly made by small producers, sometimes smaller than small. There are some one hundred or so wine producers, in the areas and territories around Lake Como, and many of them do not even reach 10,000 square meters in size!
You can understand production is mainly artisan-like: each and every grape of the vineyards is cared for with the highest of passion and attention. From start to end, these growers could tell you anything and everything about each and every one of their plants, how many leaves, how many grapes, if they are growing left or right. These vineyards are like sons and daughters, to them, and as such they care after them with love and passion.
IGT Terre Lariane
Central to the wine making in the area is IGT Terre Lariane. Born in 2009, it brings together eighteen wineries in the Lake Como area. "We're small, but growing and will grow more. And we dream big in the future", that is what Claudia Crippa, President of IGT Terre Lariane, told me while leading me to a tour of her own family estate on the slopes of the Montevecchia hills, in Brianza, one of the main wine making areas around Lake Como. Another important area is Alto Lago (Upper Lake), while other producers are scattered in Valle San Martino, near Lecco, East of River Adda, and on the hills to the West of Como.
IGT Terre Lariane has established itself as a credible representative of the world of viticulture in Brianza and Lake Como, its two main target areas. And always with an eye to innovation and to the future. And these last few years have put a strain on IGT Terre Lariane's ability to 'make the group stick together. 2014 was a disaster, 2015 a super vintage but quantitatively few grapes, 2016 not easy to manage: in July, the mood was not the best, I assure you, but in the end we did it all", admits Claudia Crippa.
Branding the wine
Lots of the activity has been devoted in building a common brand. And the marker was Merlot, one typical of the area around Lake Como,with a flavor of its own.
"It is found mostly in whites but it comes out clearly in the reds, too, when produced well. It is a beginning of the much famous minerality, the salty note of calcareous marl we have all over the area, poor but rich in minerals. Here in Montevecchia, the flavor comes from the calcareous marl; in Domaso and Alto Lake generally, however, by the presence of soil of volcanic origin, they also characterized by a mineral note".
Open to visitors
All IGT Terre Lariane members are open to visitors: you can tour the wineries, taste their wines, which are heaven on earth when paired to the typical salami, fresh cheese and missoltin (seasoned lake fish) the lake Como area is famous for.
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The facts
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