Behind The Wine with Davide Gentile of Lammidia

Today you are getting an engaging breakaway into the charming life of Davide Gentile, Davide is one part-owner alongside Marco Giuliani of the very well established natural winery ’Lammidia based in Abruzzo, Italy. David and Marco have been making world-class wines at Lammidia since 2014 and I have no doubt in my mind you will take something special away from this.

Behind the wine is designed to create a more wholesome connection between the winemaker and you the drinker.

Just how badly did the coronavirus affect you guys in terms of business and wine production?

All the orders were delayed, as well as the payments, so the main problems was in terms of cash flow. Last year we invested all our savings (and more) to make a new cellar (in addition to the original one) and buying a lot of modern and efficient equipment, so we had hopes to get back some money in this period… that’s why we have suffered a little more.

Although since the beginning of May a lot of clients have restarted to order and picking up wine again too, so the situation now is more under control. At the end, we can say that maybe it wasn’t so bad as we had to wait a few more months extra to release the new wines, and they are now even more ready than in March.

For the last decade, you have been making some outstanding wines that have reached my radar here in the UK through social media platforms like Instagram etc.

Recently, the celebrity rapper/restauranteur/sommelier/lover of life Action Bronson, gave Lammidia shoutout a while back on ‘Fuck That’s Delicious’ his renowned food and wine tv show. Just how good was that for business on your behalf over at Lammidia?

The first time Action Bronson drunk our wine was some years ago at “La Kalada”, in Barcelona, a smoking club where there are some of our close friends from Abruzzo who work there. Our friends were so happy that he liked the wines, and they sent us a lot of crazy pictures… to be honest we didn’t even know Action Bronson at the time, we soon became big fans of his too!

I can’t give you a real feeling about how the shoutout on how ‘Fuck That’s Delicious’ impacted our business, because from us to the final customers there are several steps, so we don’t know exactly how much bottles were drunken thanks to Action Bronson, but for sure it gave a lot of awareness to Lammidia.

The first time Action Bronson drunk our wine was some years ago… they sent us a lot of crazy pictures

I really like the name ‘Lammidia’, it rolls off the tongue so easily & has a catchy ring to it. What was your thinking behind your great. name. L’ammidia’?

La’mmidia means envy or evil in our local dialect. In our popular tradition, wise women use an ancient practice made of water, oil and spells to get rid of it. When we made our first wine in 2010, fermentation started unabatedly. Since then, she gets rid of La’middia before each harvest.

The wines you produce are exceptional. So clean and pure with a super juicy mouthfeel to them, some of my favourite wines at the moment!

When the guest tastes their first mouthful of your wines, is there a specific experience you try to create between the drinkers and yourselves?

ONE MORE GLASS, PLEASE!

Drinkability first. A wine has to be good to drink, and if it is good, you want more. After that we can start speaking about the terroir, methodology and all other boring things that sometimes “experts” and commentators would love to speak about, to justify their Sommelier title.

After drinkability we need to speak about health; when the wines get into your body you have to feel good, not heartburn or a headache.

Some glasses later we get into the area of soul; you have to feel more happy and in a good relation with other people, having pleasure for drinking Lammidia in a wide perspective. At the end only good memories remain.

ONE MORE BOTTLE, PLEASE!

To me, the natural wine community is VERY transparent. filled with producers like yourselves producing fresh and raw wines year in year out, which is why I choose to join this community.

What exactly was it that made you and Marco join this community to start making natural wines?

We are wine lovers first; and it is a crucial crucial point for everything we do. The first tastings we have participated in were VinItaly, one of the biggest wine fairs around the world. After a couple of editions, we were already bored, everything was tasting the same and we felt no emotions towards the wines we were tasting.

We are wine lovers first;

On the same day as VinItaly, there was also a natural wine tasting, possibly one of the first in Italy? Anyway, we got there and it completely changed our perspective; every wine was better than the previous… we became crazy! In those fairs you can speak directly with the winemakers.

I was impressed by the hands of these people, because they use them to do all of the jobs, from the vineyard to the sales. And they were so open, we asked a lot of questions. and they answered without secrets, sharing all of their experiences and knowledges.

QUESTION FROM A FAN AND A FOLLOWER ON INSTAGRAM

@jamestaylor96_: As natural winemakers and drinkers (I assume) do you think making natural wine gives us a greater connection to the earth?

Natural wines look as everything is interconnected; the earth, the atmosphere and the people… we are all part of a unique system and we have to be conscious of that, for everything we do.