Fattoria di Lamole

GOD, I love these wines! Presently run by Paolo Socci, he's been at the helm for 56 years. His family line goes back to 1071, and the family has been making wine in the area for over 200 years. The winery itself is small - you turn around and you bump into yourself - and the amount of wine Paolo makes isn't huge. His vineyards are literally quite vertical in the highest part of the Chianti Classico zone, in Lamole. There's a constant breeze in his vineyards thanks to the elevation, and the temperature up there drops like a bag of dirt as soon as the sun goes down, giving the wines freshness and energy. When he's not making wine he's rebuilding the stone walls on the hillside to delineate the different parcels, but also to help keep the vineyards not slide down the steep hill.

Paolo makes two 'brands' of wines: Le Stinche (pronounced lay STEEN-kay) and Antico Lamole. Get them all, drink them all, and for god's sake if you ever find yourself within an hour of Lamole, just GO.