Lake Garda, the much-visited international tourist destination, boasts on its southern shore an intriguing countryside: Lugana. An ancient forest in the past and the meeting-point of the provinces of Brescia and Verona, it is now a realm where the grapevine reigns as queen.
The curious traveller with a taste for fine food and wine is welcomed by a tranquil landscape of gentle hills carpeted by vineyards and olive groves, as well as by a host of unexpected “encounters with fine taste.”
The
cli
mate
The tempering climate of the lake renders the weather in Lugana particularly pleasant. Classic to this growing area are the mild winds that caress its contours, gifting it with significant day-night temperature differentials that protect the health of the clusters and fill them with rich aromas.
Day and night, the Ora and Pelèr winds blow over the lake, wafting through Montonale’s vineyards, bringing their gifts.
The
soils
The soils in Lugana derive from the final glacial age, which also sculpted Lake Garda. These are predominantly calcareous clays, which impart to the wines an elegance and earthy minerality.
These qualities are the reason that the vine has been cultivated here from antiquity; legend has it that the Roman poet Catullus offered local wines to Julius Caesar and that they were later cherished by the Ostrogoth Theodotus.
Whether true or not, it is a fact that the thousand hectares of vineyard cultivated to Lugana flourish in long-celebrated soils.
