È Jamu is the story of an old farm in Chianti today run by an energetic sister and brother duo. Meca (25) and Rocco (23) are eager farmers of grapes and olives. Their fledgling domaine makes a red wine, a white white, and an olive oil, all of stunning purity and terroir expression. To us, this is the heart and soul of Chianti.
Their 30 hectares of organic vines and olive trees sit in Valdarno Superiore, the precious Eastern sloping sub-region of Chianti. Valdarno has been considered an ideal wine growing site since the Roman era, cited by Cosimo de Medici as one of the four areas of excellence in Tuscan wine production.
Meca (short for Maria Domenica) and Rocco have an intense and inspiring story.
They were born into a farming family in the Southern Italian province of Calabria, destined to be the sixth generation of olive growers. Sadly, this region is riddled with mafia activity to this day, and their late Father boldly ventured to turn his family’s olive farm and oil mill into a social cooperative expressly to employ at-risk youth away from the mafia. “That's when the problems and threats started, preventing us from working and making our lives impossible. Thousands of burnt trees, direct threats to our safety.”
Eventually the family was forced to flee Calabria. They chose the Valdarno in Tuscany specifically for the famed olive oil and to branch into wine, the dream of his children Meca & Rocco. Their father managed to purchase a small part of this five decades old wine & oil domaine in 2019. Sadly, Sig. Luppino succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2021, leaving Meca & Rocco and their Mother to manage the farm with help in the cellars from their enologist, Giampaolo Chiettini (Santo Stefano, Castagnoli, Nunzi Conti, La Vigna di San Martino ad Argiano).
Meca & Rocco remain passionate about their generation finding their home in natural farming: “Being in our early twenties, both my sister and I are very keen to get young people like us involved in the farming and wine sector because now more than ever we believe there is a great need for people to change their way of thinking about and consuming food and wine, in a way that is more sustainable and respectful of nature. We also want young people to rediscover the beauty and the importance of working the land, especially the vine, which, for Italians, gives the drink par excellence, the drink that’s made Tuscany famous throughout the world: Chianti.”
È jamu is Calabrian slang for let's go! It’s not hard to see how this relates to the Luppino’s flight from Calabria but it also speaks to Meca & Rocco’s philosophy: “to never fall idle—to always be growing, developing, improving.”
An intense red colour with violet reflections. The nose is nicely full and Intense - persistent, with marked notes of violets and sour cherries, wild berries and blossom. The palate is medium-bodied, very pure and direct with great Sangiovese character. Persistent, long and silky with a kick of classic Sangiovese tannin.
On the palate, it shows how Sangiovese can be, beautifully fresh, vibrant, perfumed, floral and elegant!
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