Tenute Lunelli The Story of Three Estates & One Passionate Family

Tenuta Margon wines are all expressions of meticulous mountain viticulture, hailing from sloping vineyards on the high hills surrounding Trento (between 350 and 600 meters / 1,148 and 1,968 feet above sea level). Thanks to the territory’s dramatic diurnal temperature shifts, conditions here are ideal for fostering complexity, intensity, and vibrant acidity in the grapes’ flavor profiles. The soil is mainly sandy, with a high proportion of rocks.

Both Tenuta Margon’s namesake wine and the Pietragrande release are predominantly chardonnay-based, made from grapes grown in the Lunelli family’s sustainably farmed vineyards that surround Villa Margon, on the right bank of the River Adige to the southwest of Trento. The training systems employed include the one-armed “Trentino pergola” and Guyot, planted at a density of between 4,000 to 4,500 vines per hectare. The wines of Tenuta Margon have been certified organic since 2017.

Tenute Lunelli’s mission is to showcase the incredible diversity and unique sense of place across the fine wine zones of Trentino, Tuscany, and Umbria — and to do so in a completely sustainable fashion.

“If any company is honor-bound to act responsibly at a social level, this is even more the case for a wine producer, whose relationship with their terroir is profound and indissoluble,” says Camilla Lunelli. “With this conviction in mind, we have made sustainability our creed.”

To that end, the Lunellis prioritize top-quality grapes and the utmost protection of the environment along with ensuring the health and well-being of their vine growers. All three estates have obtained organic certification — Podornovo in 2012, Castelbuono in 2014, and Margon in 2017. In addition, Tenute Lunelli are a “Biodiversity Friend,” a certification created by the World Biodiversity Association.

Tenuta Podernovo is a stunning, vine-covered hill in the commune of Terricciola, within the up-and-coming, high-quality wine zone of the Colline Pisane, not far from the Tuscan coast. This particular geographical position, coupled with soils rich in sand and fossil deposits, creates a microclimate with ideal conditions for vine-growing.

The microclimate and topography here are ideal for producing fine red wines. The coastal climate marries perfectly with the combination of loamy yellow sand and blue Pliocene clay soils, with marine fossil deposits from the late Carboniferous age. In fact, it is the composition of the soil that provides the inspiration of the fossil as the emblem of Tenuta Podernovo. The vineyards enjoy west, south, and east exposures at an altitude of 137 meters / 450 feet above sea level.

Tenuta Podernovo was the first estate of the Tenute Lunelli group to be recognized with an organic certification in 2012. Leveraging Animavitis® — a precision vineyard management program invented and coordinated by Italian-Brazilian oenologist Monica Rossetti — the Podernovo team is able to map each row and plot based on the specific phenolic and vegetative potential of the vines. This potential is determined based on ground surveys conducted using infrared sensors that diagnose the behavior of the vines and, in turn, can adapt every single viticultural action from pruning, fertilization, canopy management, and harvest. The Lunellis were the first in Italy to adpot this emerging process.

Tenute Lunelli’s mission is to showcase the incredible diversity and unique sense of place across the fine wine zones of Trentino, Tuscany, and Umbria — and to do so in a completely sustainable fashion.

“If any company is honor-bound to act responsibly at a social level, this is even more the case for a wine producer, whose relationship with their terroir is profound and indissoluble,” says Camilla Lunelli. “With this conviction in mind, we have made sustainability our creed.”

To that end, the Lunellis prioritize top-quality grapes and the utmost protection of the environment along with ensuring the health and well-being of their vine growers. All three estates have obtained organic certification — Podornovo in 2012, Castelbuono in 2014, and Margon in 2017. In addition, Tenute Lunelli are a “Biodiversity Friend,” a certification created by the World Biodiversity Association.

In 2001, fascinated by ancient Umbria (and by the region’s extraordinarily powerful and ageworthy sagrantino wines) the Lunelli family purchased Tenuta Castelbuono, an estate with 30 hectares / 74 acres of vineyards in the communes of Bevagna and Montefalco. While their efforts were initially concentrated on the vineyards, the Lunelli family eventually drafted in their long-time friend and famous contemporary artist, Arnaldo Pomodoro, to help bring a new kind of winery to life — and did he ever deliver.

The patinaed dome of “Carapace” took six years to complete and was finally opened to the public in 2012. Engraved with fissures that recall the furrows in the earth surrounding it, it is actually inspired by the curve of a turtle’s shell (“carapace” in Italian). A sculpted element in the form of a red dart plunging into the soil highlights the work’s place in the landscape. This is a distinctive, special winery for distinctive, special wines.

Tenute Lunelli’s mission is to showcase the incredible diversity and unique sense of place across the fine wine zones of Trentino, Tuscany, and Umbria — and to do so in a completely sustainable fashion.

“If any company is honor-bound to act responsibly at a social level, this is even more the case for a wine producer, whose relationship with their terroir is profound and indissoluble,” says Camilla Lunelli. “With this conviction in mind, we have made sustainability our creed.”

To that end, the Lunellis prioritize top-quality grapes and the utmost protection of the environment along with ensuring the health and well-being of their vine growers. All three estates have obtained organic certification — Podornovo in 2012, Castelbuono in 2014, and Margon in 2017. In addition, Tenute Lunelli are a “Biodiversity Friend,” a certification created by the World Biodiversity Association.