In Italian, Luce means “light,” and the name reflects the importance of light as one of the crucial elements in the creation of wine, nurturing the grapes to maturity on the vine. Luce also reflects the idea of light as reason, thought, and progress.

The sun is present as a visual motif in Luce’s striking label, inspired by a design found on the Altare Maggiore, an altar in the Santo Spirito church in Florence. Designed in the 15^th Century by Filippo Brunelleschi, the foremost architect of the Italian Renaissance, Santo Spirito was built on land donated by the Frescobaldi family. This departure from traditional wine labels also reflects the interplay present at Luce between the past and present.

Luce was founded in 1995 by a unique partnership between two historic winemaking families: Marchese de’ Frescobaldi and Robert Mondavi. The partnership generated a departure from the past for both families, resulting in a new and unique creation. Grounded in the rich earth of Montalcino and blessed with a terroir uniquely suited to the production of Merlot, the vision has always been, and will always be to produce world-class wines that fully express the disctictive characteristics of the grape and the soil.

Today, Luce della Vite is wholly owned by the Frescobaldi family, with Lamberto as the winemaker. For Lamberto, Luce is a melding of his family’s 700 year history of making wine and his decidedly modern perspective. “Luce has a very distinct identity for me,” says Lamberto. “Although it is connected to my family’s traditions, Luce is a wine and an idea all its own.”