The 2012 vintage has been incredible; Donatella Cinelli Colombini went from pure terror because of the drought to full scale enthusiasm for the extraordinary Brunello grapes picked.

Donatella with grapes

A cold winter, with snowfalls which blocked people in their homes for a whole month, but also a dry winter where even the snow left very little humidity in the soil.

So, the 2012 summer has been preceded by a long period of about 12 months of dryness with rare showers, and that means with half the usual amount of 700 mm of rainfall which we usually get in this part of Tuscany. This is where it starts to get interesting! From June onwards 3 months without a single drop of rain with temperatures above average but most of all a sky that was always so clear, so the hours of sunlight were always very many every day. This type of situation has greatly troubled the grape growers. The trimming of the shoots were modest and the leaves nearest the clusters were left to protect them from the sun. The vineyard was hoed so as to maintain the humidity underground, the clusters were thinned out twice so that in the end there really were very few.

Take part to the grape harvest of Brunello wine and Chianti in the vineyards, in the cellar and sit at the table of Donatella Cinelli Colombini restaurant

grape harvest at Fattoria del Colle

An unique experience to discover how the great tuscan red wines such as Brunello, Chianti Superiore and Doc Orcia are  produced. You will meet new friends, you will sleep in the houses of the ancient farmers and you will live a funny day between vineyards and cellars during the grape harvest with technical wine tasting and tasty dishes from Crete Senesi and Val d’Orcia. Sunday, before leaving, vertical guided wine tasting of Brunello di Montalcino produced at Casato
Prime Donne and lunch at our restaurant with pinci. Furthermore visit to neighbouring towns such as Pienza and Montepulciano.

Programme:

Saturday 22nd September
Check-in at Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda in the south of Chianti district
4.00 pm grape harvest experience in the vineyards
5.00 pm in the cellar to see the vinification process
6.30 pm Happy wine in the histyorical cellar at Fattoria del Colle with Cenerentola Orcia Doc and
Pecorino cheese from Crete Senesi
8.00 pm Dinner at the restaurant Osteria di Donatella with view on Trequanda village. Menù with dishes of ancient senese meat like Pappardelle al sugo di cinta senese and grilled chianina meat

Grape harvest 2011

matched with Brunello di Montalcino Prime Donne 2007
Night stay at Fattoria del Colle

Sunday 23rd September

10.30 am guided tour at Fattoria del Colle in the ancient rooms of the sixteenth-century villa, the chapel and the historical cellar. Following vertical guided wine tasting with must, Rosso di Montalcino Doc, the future Brunello 2010, Brunello 2007 and Brunello Riserva 2005.

Bonella and Sangiovese grapes

1.00 pm Lunch at the restaurante with pinci (typical tuscan handmade pasta) and cinta senese ham matched with Leone Rosso Orcia Doc.

After lunch we suggest the trekking through the vineyards at Fattoria del Colle: it is an informative walk among the vineyards with explicative signposts regarding grape varieties;at the end a test and a little award for you. As an alternative you can visit the towns of artistic interest like Pienza, Montepulciano and Montalcino.

Price per person:
85,50 € for the stay in double room with bathroom and the activities described in the programme
61,30 € for the dinner and the lunch with wines included

In Donatella Cinelli Colombini vineyards the clusters are scarce and it will have to be further diminished with the “green harvest” so as to help the thirsty vines

Fattoria-del-Colle-inspection in the vineyards-Valérie-Lavigne

To be sure this grape harvest with be anticipated and scarce! What is still to be seen in the level of quality which will depend on the rain foreseen for the end of August. The vines are thirsty. Especially where there is more soil skeletal and a better position. So the change in climate is completely turning over the classification of best vineyards and in 2012 the best grapes will come from the vines planted in soil which is rich in clay and with less exposition to the sun.

For Donatella Cinelli Colombini this means a small revolution. So at Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino more expectations from the “vignone” – the only old vineyard on the farm – and in the Sant’ Antonio Vineyard while the new splendid vineyards of Sangiovese on the hill begin to show the first

Sangiovese grapes

traces of stress through lack of rain. At Fattoria del Colle the Foglia Tonda variety is in serious difficulty and some of the grapes have already been removed to help the vines resist the drought. Much better for the Sangiovese and even better for the Sagrantino, which seems indifferent to all climatic problems. The hydro-stress is more accentuated at Fattoria del Colle than in the Brunello area, especially in the “poggione” vineyard.

The colour changing of the grapes ( from green to blue )  will determine how many and which clusters to remove with the green harvesting. The green grapes are cut. There are few clusters but to help the grapes in the extreme climatic conditions registered in 2012 it will be necessary to diminish some more.

culling-foglia-tonda vineyard

<<Nature always gives back what it has taken away >> says the proverb, so if there is a reduction in quantity then there should be relative increase in quality, and as there is a foreseen lessening in quantity of about 20% with respect to the norm, then this year the quality should be extraordinarily high. Let’s hope so!

Sangiovese – Brunello 2011? At Casato Prime Donne <<the grapes are better than last year>> says Valérie Lavigne the wine maker

Donatella, Violante, Valerie, Barbara

The forecast for our 2011 harvest are very good. The cellar master Barbara Magnani and the agronomist Folco Bencini are optimistic most of all about the resistance of the Sangiovese vineyards at Casato Prime Donne regardless of the great African heat at the end of the summer.
Valérie Lavigne’s opinion is even more positive << our Brunello grapes have really surprised me, they are even better than last year because the ripening has been more   homogeneous>>.
First day of harvest at Casato Prime Donne was September 15th, 10 days sooner than the traditional Brunello calendar.
At Fattoria del Colle Merlot, Foglia Tonda (which has demonstrated that it greatly suffers from droughts) and some of the Sangiovese for Chianti and Doc Orcia wines have already been picked. Apparently the Fattoria del Colle vines have suffered the heat and lack of rainfalls more than those at Casato Prime Donne. In fact the lager quantity of clay in the soil in Montalcino has been a decidedly favourable element this year.
The grape harvest is quicker because of the lower quantities of grapes. About 30% less than last year.

The grape harvest

The Consorzio del Brunello had diminished the production per hectare to 6 tonnes of grapes and probably the lower amount of clusters is also because of the pruning done at the beginning of July. The “green harvest” diminishing of the clusters has helped the vines a great deal to be able to withstand the great heat from the second half of August and September as did the difference in temperatures between night and day.
The lower yield also depends on the size of clusters which are smaller than usual, and the size of the single grapes is also smaller. However the clusters are beautiful, open and loose.
The most positive element is that the grapes are perfectly ripe; there is not one cluster anywhere with some mould.
the quality that will result depends a lot on the choice of the clusters. The clusters and parts of clusters that have dried grapes must be eliminated. Allowing them to go into the vats would mean that the sugar content of the must would go up and the wines produced would be too alcoholic. The removing of dried grapes takes automatically along a selection table that has a vibrating mechanism for this reason. The rest is removed manually by the two people constantly present at the table.
At this moment the analysis of our Sangiovese-Brunello show a potential alcohol of more than 13° vol, acidity around  7,30, an abundance in phenolic richness, which however will only partially be extractable. The grape seed are lignified, that means that they will not release green tannins.

So, to conclude we are expecting a good harvest, especially in Montalcino and in the older vineyards.
The 2011 vintage will probably have “Mediterranean” characteristic, so it will be very pleasant and round in the mouth and on the nose it twill be characterized by nuances of ripe fruit

Cross your fingers and do a rain dance! The coming weeks are crucial for the quality of the 2011 vintage. Our Brunello, Chianti and Doc Orcia vineyards have bravely endured the strong sun in the second half of August but now are desperate for a good drink of water

Our winemaker Valerie Lavigne has followed the progress of the harvest via the internet and today will be joining

Valerie Lavigne wine maker

 us to personally oversee the harvesting of the Brunello grapes. At present our most important grapes have potentially a high alcohol content, with very high acidity and only a few extractable polyphenols. We await further developments in the coming days.  At the moment the fruit bears some resemblance to the legendary 1997 vintage.
The harvesting started last Monday at the Fattoria del Colle with some of the Traminer grapes which when they resemble raisins will be used to produce the passito. This wine has a sweet, soothing aroma and tastes of honey, it is my husband Carlo passion and also that of the wine producer Barbara Magnani. At the moment we are bottling the 300 precious bottles of our Pink and Gold label passito from our 2010 harvest, which we are sure will give us a delicious sweet tasting wine.

Merlot grape harvest at Fattoria del Colle

The harvest then continued with the Traminer grapes which will  be used to produce our white wine ‘Sanchimento’  IGT Toscana. Only 40 quintali of grapes were collected which will be used to create wine for the enjoyment of future visitors to  the Fattoria del Colle. 30^th  August was the first day of the harvest of the Merlot grapes for the Doc Orcia’ Leone Rosso’ wine. As always the Merlot  grapes have suffered the effects of the sun much more than the Sangiovese grapes and therefore it was necessary to harvest them at least 15 days ahead of our normal scheduled harvesting date. Barbara is getting used to addressing this problem as it is happening more and more often.
For us the most important grapes are the Sangiovese and, fortunately, the extensive thinning out of the fruit which we undertook in the first half of August has helped them to withstand the stress of the lack of water which was triggered by the strong sun which we have experienced in the last month.
It is most likely that the best grapes of the next harvest will grow on the established older vines and not from my wonderful new vineyards which are only 10 years old, although these have a very good position on the hillsides they are very exposed to the sun and have suffered more from the heat this year than the other more established vineyards. That’s the nice thing about having vineyards in lots of different positions with varying amounts of sunshine and in lots of different types of soil!  Every year the weather benefits specific positions of vineyards and soil types and therefore guarantees a good harvest from a good portion of the vineyards.
Our team of harvesters this year is made up of 18 people, 2 of which are driving the tractors and 16 are harvesting by hand. Many of our team are young people, some are still students and some have recently graduated. Almost all are from our local area. When we start the harvest of the Sangiovese grapes we will increase the size of the group by another 7 harvesters.

20 kilos boxes for the grape harvest

The grapes are collected in 20 kg boxes, these are stacked on the trailers of tractors, and then they are transported to the wine cellar where they are passed through the crusher and de-steming  machines and then they are fed into the fermentation vat where they will stay for about 15 days.