Eric Guido, Vinous.com
Col di Lamo was born in 1997 when Giovanna Neri (sister of Casanova di Neri’s Giacomo Neri) split with Giacomo and established her own winery (taking ownership of part of the Casanova di Neri estate) calling it Col di Lamo uniting the name of a hill (colle or col) with Lamo (the name of one of the estate buildings; the others are called Colombaio and Grosseto).
At that time, Col di Lamo owned 3 hectares of Brunello, 1.5 hectares of Rosso; today it’s six of Brunello, one of Rosso and two and a half of IGT (9.5 hectares total). At first, Neri sold grapes (to Frescobaldi, to Argiano and others) and then made small batches in a makeshift winery housed within a garage (but her first vintage, the 2003 Brunello, was actually made in the winery of Poggio Castellare, since sold to Cecchi) before finally building her own winery in 2014. Neri now makes 30,000 bottles a year (20,000 of Brunello, 3,500 bottles of a barrique-aged IGT 70% Sangiovese-30% Cabernet Sauvignon blend and 6,500 of Rosso di Montalcino. Such numbers are a good indication of the quality driven mindset Neri possesses. For example, most estates would make about 14,000 bottles of Rosso from similar sized Rosso holdings. Neri collaborates with viticulturalist/winemaker Mary Ferrara (an ultra-talented, longtime collaborator of well-known winemaking consultant Maurizio Castelli, who understands Sangiovese like very few in Italy). The estate uses native yeasts and practices organic farming only.
