Canada, Vancouver start off in a limousine and then a free day on Sunday with market stalls, ferry boat and American-Indian dances. Monday extra long Brunello

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

MOA Vancouver Native American dances

Once again in Canada and this time with the other Brunello producers. We are in Vancouver and we are all dressed for winter, but here it is hot, hotter than Montalcino at least.
Upon arrival the Brunello producers find a limousine with lounge and ceiling with lighting similar to a Christmas tree waiting for them. We were all overawed but happy.
Sunday was a free day with a visit to the market stalls, a ferry boat trip across the bay and then the Museum of Anthropology with the American Indian music festival. Wonderful!
The city is quite rainy but beautiful, what is especially fantastic is the lifestyle, with many young people and many different races. Asians, European immigrants…if there is a really multiethnic place then that is Vancouver. It also seems a happy city, with no tensions and a great love of life.

Inspiring tasting for the Prime Donne with two 5 star Brunello: the brand new 2012 and the 2010 ready to be prepared for bottling

Daniela Scrobogna and Astrid Schwarztogether with the consultant wine

My daughter and the Prime Donne on tasting

maker Valérie Lavigne and the cellar master Barbara Magnani finished the tasting with a smile, sure to have chosen wines that will have an impact.

With no Brunello 2009 to taste, vintage where the selection Brunello Prime Donne will not be produced, the super tasters concentrated on the vintages 2012 and 2010.
The 2012 inspired them for its power and fullness already well expressed only a few months from vinification. The new 5 and 7 hl barrels in French oak have been chosen for the first phase in ageing of this sumptuous wine.
For the future Brunello 2010 it was in fact the last tasting before bottling. The blend between small and medium barrels chosen by the tasters will permit production of only 6.600 bottles. Less than foreseen by decidedly excellent.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s Brunello 2008 among the three preferred by Jancis Robinson super taster and obtains 17,5 points out of 20

Jancis Robinson

The European ratings are expressed out of 20 and not out of 100 as is done in the US, plus they are much more rigid so to achieve 16 or 17 is a first rate outcome. So a vast amount of the 230 Brunello tasted by the super taster Walter Speller – a sort of 007 at the service of Her Majesty Jancis Robinson, queen of the wine experts – have reached this excellent result.
Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s Brunello 2008 rates higher with its 17,5 points, third in his podium. This is his description <<Lacklustre mid ruby with orange rim. Sweet and concentrated and quite closed at the same time. Hint of leather. Chewy tannin framing fresh cherry fruit. Muscular and yet not heavy. (WS)>>.
The rating for the Brunello 2008 Prime Donne is wonderful too 16,5/20 and good for the Brunello Riserva 2007 which obtains 16/20.

A series of 12 new spectacular Brunello to begin the new year of the Union Européenne des Gourmets di Siena with a memorable event.

Gourmets_preview_Brunello-14

The Siena Consul Siena Alessandro Bonelli promises sparks in 2013 with wine tastings, conferences and tours of excellent producers. The beginning is a triumph, 12 wines that resemble the leading players on the Italian Premier league: Canalicchio di sopra, Capanna, Altesino, Costanti, Solaria, Casanova di Neri, Talenti, Fanti, Siro Pacenti, Banfi-Poggio alle Mura and of course Donatella Cinelli Colombini.

Nobody will quickly forget this wine tasting for its very elevated quality level and for the excitement in tasting them for the very first time. In fact the first official tasting of the new Brunello took place in the USA first and then in Montalcino.

Brunello 2008 is liked by the Americans more than they expected. It’s a 4 star vintage but is earning its fifth on the field.

NewYork-preview-Brunello2008

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

500 clients for 41 wineries from Montalcino under the monumental Gotham Hall dome for the first New York toast to the Brunello 2008.

We are in the heart of the Big Apple, in the 19th century branch of a business bank, a sort of modern Pantheon where everything – from the doors to the chandeliers – transmits the opulence of the golden years of America. A location that become a cult for the Batman film and upon entering you really think you see the famous bat fly under the enormous central vault.

The tables for the 41 Brunello producers positioned in a circle around a central buffet with tables for eating on the outside. At midday the assault begins. Really long queues in front of the signing- in desks and an ever growing crowd in front of the producers’ tables, who for 5 hours didn’t have time to go to the restroom. Importers, buyers, journalists and bloggers, restaurateurs, shop owners

Piero_Antinori_NY_tasting_Brunello

….. as if to confirm that Brunello is a star that shines more and more in the first wine market in the world. It is also evident that the 2008 vintage meets with the requirements of the best clientele of the area: it is a “friendly” wine, so much readier and more easily understood than other Montalcino vintages. More importantly it is liked more than everybody expected. It reached here with 4 stars awarded in the harvest rating but is earning its fifth on the field.