On Sunday May 26th great wines, great music and great images from the land of Brunello at Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s winery for a “sensorial” Cantine Aperte-Wine day

Montalcino, Casato Prime Donne winery Wine Day 2013

Donatella Cinelli Colombini, who in 1993 invented Cantine Aperte, has decided to renew the formula for the visit among the barrels, transforming it into an experience which exalts and comments wine with sounds, images and obviously tastes. The sound track studied by Bonella Ciacci – a sort of expert in wine and music accompanies 8 wines divided in three tasting spots.

We are at Casato Prime Donne, on the Montalcino hills, facing Siena, and this is where the wine and music trail is. First stop dedicated to Chianti and Doc Orcia from Fattoria del Colle, Donatella’s other winery. Here the music is contemporary Italian pop from the area such as Baustelle, Gianna Nannini and Jovanotti. The next stop in the Vineyard and the vinification areas called tinaia del vento built to produce Brunello with autochthonous yeasts.

This recipe from Buonconvento, a village on the road that connects Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino (10 km) and Fattoria del Colle di Trequanda (25km)

Recipe coming from Tuscany with tripe

This comes from a small booklet hand written by housewives, where all the domestic knowledge learnt from their grandmothers is recorded. The recipes are easy, quick and very tasty.

Buonconvento is along the Roman Via which in Medieval times became the Via Francigena. It was a fortified village with spectacular wall where one stopped, for armies, merchants, pilgrims and even kings. In 1313 the Imperatore Arrigo VII died here, and, according to the legend, he was poisoned in the convent with a consecrated host from here the saying <<Buonconvento e cattivi frati>> ( Good convent bad friars) which has pursued the Buonconvento inhabitants– buonconventini, also called granocchiai or nebbiaioli – to this day and age

Ingredients for the tripe

Boiled mixed tripe, grated rind of half a lemon, an onion, pureed peeled tomatoes, grated Parmigiano, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

The most frequent recipe in Val d’Orcia is the winter one for cardoons, even though in Montalcinowe use the same recipe for celery which we eat

Gobbi rifatti Tuscan recipe and Leone Rosso DOC Orcia

in August

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Cardoons are among the tastiest and most refined vegetables that can be found. The term “gobbo” is used mainly in Tuscany while in Veneto it becomes “cardo” and in Nizza Monferrato “cardo-gobbo”. This is a wild artichoke, beautiful to see, in fact its leaves and flowers dominate the damasks , brocades and two pile velvets from the 17th and 18th century.

With Franco Biondi Santi ends an era of Brunello’s history

Franco-Biondi-Santi

A courageous and tireless paladin for Sangiovese in Montalcino as a wine excellence, he has been protagonist of the success of Italian wine in the world.
After a brief illness he was first admitted in the Siena hospital and then in the Montalcino one, 3 days ago Franco Biondi Santi passed away.
The Biondi Santi’s are the family who for first and with great tenacity has affirmed the quality of Brunello as a wine with great virtue and apt for a long ageing. With their culture and elegance that has always characterized their life and friendships, the Biondi Santi’s, and especially Franco, have divulged Brunello as a wine of excellence destined to a restricted number of wine estimators. A network of rapports which has widened, opening up the way for the diffusion of Brunello all over the world.
The news of his departure, which spread during the first day of the Vinitaly fair, has deeply grieved the Brunello producers, who now think of him with regret and gratefulness.

Goodbye dear Franco we are already missing you.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini

It is called schiacciata, which means flat, but it is anything but flat. In Montalcino and in Siena it is a typical cake for Easter to make at home.

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Easter time ingredients for "schiacciata di Pasqua"

Be careful though, in the eastern part of the Siena province the schiacciata di Pasqua is savory, enriched with cheese and prosciutto. It is used to interrupt the fasting period on the Sunday morning before going to high Mass.

I remember that for my first Easter Sunday at Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda I had prepared a wonderful menu for that day in the restaurant I had just opened. Half way through the lunch the Maitre Walter Marconi, from Montalcino like me, ran to tell me that the schiacciate, instead of being sweet, as we were used to were savoury, so we could not use them as a dessert. We remedies somehow but it was a real shock, because I was sure I knew the territory well but instead I learnt that the Val d’Orcia and the Valdichiana are two separate worlds, both fascinating, rich in stories, but to know one does not mean you know the other.