From the atlas
Chiara Condello
At A Glance
Producer: Chiara Condello Country: Italy Region: Emilia-Romagna Appellation: Predappio DOC Grape: Sangiovese Wines: Two unfiltered reds: Chiara Condello (estate) and Le Lucciole (riserva) Farming: Certified organic (Suolo e Salute) First Vintage: 2015
The Producer
Chiara Condello arrived at her father's winery one summer to spend a few months, and never quite left. The pivot happened in 2012, during harvest, and three years later she launched her own estate under her name, formally and legally separate from the family's Condé winery next door. Same village. Same grape. Nothing else shared.
Her project is built on 4.8 hectares of Sangiovese in the Predappio DOC, a hillside appellation in the southern Emilia-Romagna foothills east of the Apennines. The vineyards sit beside a forest at altitudes between 150 and 300 metres. She farms every row manually, bottles without filtering, and makes exactly two wines: an estate red and a riserva called Le Lucciole. In 2022, Food and Wine Italia named her Best Winemaker Under 35.
Place
Predappio is a DOC appellation in the Forlì-Cesena province of Emilia-Romagna, tucked into the hills where the valley of the Bidente river narrows before the Apennine ridge. It is one of the cooler, higher-elevation addresses in a region more often associated with the flatlands of the Po. At 150 to 300 metres, the vineyards receive enough elevation to slow ripening and retain the acidity that Sangiovese needs to age.
The altitude matters for the label: Predappio DOC is built entirely around Sangiovese, so the appellation name on the bottle is a direct statement of grape and place together. No blending grape softens the wine, and no flatland fruit or humidity blunts the tannin. The wines carry the character of a hillside site, not a lowland one.
Soil And Site
The soil is a calcareous clay carrying a local Pliocene sandstone called Spungone. Poor fertility is the defining quality: roots go deep, yields stay low, and the grapes concentrate rather than dilute. The Spungone content varies across the estate. The single parcel that provides Le Lucciole has a higher proportion of the rocky sandstone, which pulls more mineral edge and firmer tannin from the Sangiovese than the other plots.
The forest bordering the vineyards moderates temperature and maintains the humidity balance that organic farming requires. No irrigation. The vines find water through their own deep root systems in the clay beneath.
Story
Chiara's father Francesco Condello came to wine late. After a business career, he established the Condé estate in the early 2000s in Fiumana di Predappio. His daughter grew up nearby, studied economics, and had no fixed plan to go into wine. In 2012 she went to Condé for the summer. Harvest came, the Sangiovese came off the hillside parcels, and she did not leave.
She spent the following years at Condé learning the practical work while forming a separate plan. In 2015 she launched Azienda Agricola Chiara Condello with its own vineyards, cellar practices and market position. The split was deliberate and complete. Her father's estate and hers share a DOC and a grape variety, but the winemaking decisions, the farming philosophy and the wines themselves are entirely her own.
The two estates now sit as adjacent but distinct projects inside the same appellation, the daughter's label having earned wider international recognition than the family estate that preceded it.
Vineyards And Cellar
Chiara farms the 4.8-hectare Sangiovese estate manually, with cover crops between the rows and horse manure as fertiliser. Mechanical weed control replaces herbicides. Sulphur and copper use is kept low. The vineyards are certified organic by Suolo e Salute, the Italian standards body. Manual harvesting brings the fruit in without bruising, and the fermentation vessels are filled by gravity rather than pump.
In the cellar, fermentation runs on indigenous yeasts with minimal temperature control. Long maceration extracts colour, tannin and the aromatic compounds specific to Sangiovese on Spungone. Depending on the lot, grapes are destemmed or partially destemmed and vinified in stainless steel tanks, open-top wooden fermenters, or tonneaux. The wines age in Slavonian oak barrels, then finish in bottle. Nothing is filtered before bottling.
The gravity filling and absence of filtration are practical choices with a direct consequence: the wines carry more of the original fruit character and more of the tannin the soil delivers. Slavonian oak, larger and less assertive than French barriques, adds a quiet frame without oak flavour.
Wines
Chiara Condello is the estate red, drawn from Sangiovese parcels across the 4.8 hectares. The destemming approach varies by lot, and the fermentation vessel varies too: steel, open-top wood and tonneaux are all used, depending on what the parcel demands. The wine ages in Slavonian oak barrels and finishes in bottle. Sour cherry, dried herbs and firm but approachable tannin are the consistent thread. The oak stays in the background.
Le Lucciole is the riserva, sourced from a single small parcel where the Spungone sandstone concentration is highest. Maceration runs 25 to 45 days, longer than the estate wine. The extra skin contact and stonier soil produce a wine with more grip, darker fruit, a deeper colour and a firmer tannin frame that needs more time in bottle to open. Where the estate wine offers early access to Predappio Sangiovese, Le Lucciole is a more demanding proposition: more concentrated, more demanding, built to age.
The range has no third wine, no white, no other grape. Two Sangiovese reds from one appellation.
In The Glass
Predappio Sangiovese at this altitude tends toward sour cherry, red plum and a savoury, almost earthy quality that comes from the calcareous clay. The Spungone sandstone adds a mineral edge, the kind that sits on the back palate and lingers after the fruit has gone. Acidity is firm and natural, not manufactured, which is what keeps the wines alive across the meal and across the years.
The estate wine is lighter on its feet: the fruit is bright, the tannin is present but not aggressive, and the finish is clean with a faint dried-herb note. It can be opened relatively young. Le Lucciole is a different register: the longer maceration draws more from the skins, the fruit turns darker toward black cherry and damson, and the tannin has more grip. The finish extends, mineral and dry. Both wines carry the particular quality of unfiltered Slavonian oak ageing, which is a slight chewiness to the texture that softens over time in bottle.
A Bottle To Understand It
Le Lucciole is the bottle to start with. It is the parcel-specific riserva from the portion of the estate where the Spungone rock content is highest, and it shows directly what that sandstone does to Sangiovese: more mineral pull on the finish, firmer tannin, darker fruit. Maceration runs up to 45 days, which is long for the variety and leaves a clear structural mark. The wine ages in Slavonian oak, goes into bottle unfiltered, and needs a year or two of patience after release before it opens up.
Pour it alongside a slow-cooked meat dish. The acidity cuts through fat, the tannin locks onto protein, and the finish stays dry and savoury rather than sweet. It is a wine built for the table, not the tasting room.
Anecdote
In summer 2012, Chiara Condello drove to her father's winery in Predappio with her master's degree in economics finished and no particular plan to stay. She was twenty-something, the harvest was weeks away, and she intended to spend a few months before working out what came next. Then the Sangiovese came in off the hillside parcels. She worked the harvest, and when it was over, she did not leave. She stayed through the winter, through the following year, and through the year after that, learning every row of the vineyards and every decision in the cellar. By 2015, she had separated her own project from her father's estate entirely, new vineyards, new label, new market. The first bottle she put her name on came from the 2015 vintage, three years after she had arrived with a suitcase and an economics degree and no plan at all to make wine.
Final Word
Chiara Condello makes two Sangiovese reds from an appellation most international buyers have never heard of, farms without chemicals on poor sandstone clay, and bottles without filtering. The wines are lean, mineral and dry in a way that suits the table more than it suits a tasting note. Le Lucciole is the wine to seek.
Sources
- https://www.chiaracondello.com/en/progetto.html
- https://www.northberkeleyimports.com/wordpress/project/azienda-agricola-chiara-condello/
- https://dialectimports.com/2025/09/30/chiara-condello-redefining-sangiovese-in-predappio/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiara_Condello
- https://www.chiaracondello.com/en/vini.html
- https://www.vfwines.com/condello-intro-may21/