Wine and Vineyards - Val Camonica, Italy

The first traces of the presence of wine in the LAG area date back to Roman times, when the culture of the vine became so important in the province of Bergamo that a temple was dedicated to Bacchus in the village of San Lorenzo.
In the seventh century the Lombards invaded the lakes, forcing the inhabitants to flee. Like all invaders they were mainly interested in raiding, and did not pay any attention to the vineyards, but took full advantage of the wine that had been produced previously.  The vines were left without farmers, causing a remarkable decline in terms of their pervasiveness and productivity.  The salvation of the viticulture mainly came about thanks to care taken by the churches over their properties.  When the BenedicitinCavallina (Lake Endines settled in various monasteries in the Province of Bergamo in 1491.wine took a leap forward, and perhaps it is from this moment that these two towns became the most important wine-making centres of Bergamo.  It was probably between 1400 and 1600 that the wines from the province were placed on the Market in Milan, where they acquired wide acclaim.  Today the Laghi Bergamaschi territory falls under the areas identified by the product specifications for the Bergamo's three major wine designations: Valcalepio DOC, IGT della Bergamasca, Terre del Colleoni DOC.
The area with the greatest level of production is that to the south of the mountain community that stretches from Cenate Sopra, touches the western shore of Lake Iseo and extends up to Predore.  These territories are involved in the production of the most important DOC within the Province of Bergamo: Valcalepio (white and red).  Going northwards and taking in almost all of the territory of Val Cavallina (Lake Endine) and all western bank of Lake Iseo (Lower and Upper Sebino) , we find other interesting productions in different local variations that led to the production of Bergamasca IGT (typical geographic indication) as well as the last (in chronological order  ) significant recognised  name: Terre
del Colleon DOC.