È Jamu

Chianti, Tuscany, Italy

Meca & Rocco Luppino

È Jamu is the story of an old farm in Chianti today run by an energetic sister and brother duo. Meca (24) and Rocco (22)  are eager farmers of grapes and olives. They’re a fledgling domaine. Currently producing a red, a white, and an olive oil of stunning purity and terroir expression. To us, this is the heart and soul of Chianti. 

These brave young vignerons tend 30 hectares of organic vines and olive groves in Valdarno Superiore, the precious Eastern sloping sub-region of Chianti considered ideal for wine growing since the Roman era, cited by Cosimo de Medici as one of the four areas of excellence in Tuscan wine production. If you want to know more about the characteristics of this area you can take a look at www.vinerra.com

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 Valderno in Tuscany specifically for the famed olive oil and to branch into wine, the dream of his children Meca & Rocco. In 2019, their father managed to purchase a small part of this five decades old wine and olive oil domaine. Sadly, in 2021, their Father succumb to pancreatic cancer leaving Meca & Rocco and their Mother to manage the farm with help from their enologist, Giampaolo Chiettini (La Vigna di San Martino ad Argiano, Santo Stefano, Castagnoli, Nunzi Conti). Giampaolo spent many years working alongside Paolo De Marchi as winemaker at Isole e Olena, where he honed his skills as a winemaker and developed his love of Sangiovese.

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. 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 land, especially the vine and wine, which here in Italy is the drink par excellence, what has made Tuscany famous throughout the world: Chianti.”

È Jamu is Calabrian slang for "Let's Go!" You can see how this relates to their flight from Calabria but it speaks to more than this. For Meca & Rocco it is a philosophy, to never idle and always continue to grow and develop and improve.