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.

We are very optimistic about the wine harvest. The clusters of grapes tend to be sparse with berries growing on small stalks. We feel confident to predict that we will be ahead of our timetabled harvest by almost 10 days

Green harvest of Foglia tonda vines

The rains in the second half of July have reduced the water stress that the vines were experiencing thus lengthening the time for the maturing of the fruit. The colour change of the grapes is even better than we anticipated and is more like the colours we would expect in vines which are planted in lower fields.
The grapes were definitely less abundant last year and we considered that to be quite a sparse crop. This year we have been able to remove any excess clusters, especially in vineyards where some of the new vines were too laden with grapes, they would have producted much more than the optimal production of 1.200 kg from every 4 bunches. This ‘green harvest’ was carried out at the Casato Prime Donne di Montalcino on the Sangiovese grapes which are intended for the Brunello and the Rosso di Montalcino and  at Fattoria del  Colle nel Sud del Chianti , in the vineyards of the Doc Orcia Cenerentola and the Leone Rosso.

We are very excited about the quality of these grapes and anticipate a 5 star harvest.
In Montalcino thinning the grapes allows us to control production to around 60 quintals of grapes per acre, which is a crop production which is determined by the official assembly of wine producers. This level of production relies entirely on the quality of the grapes which are being grown. We hope that the sun will shine the appropriate amount and help us to achieve our anticipated 5 star harvest.

Casato Prime Donne - green harvest

The next job for those of us who tenderly look after the grapes will be the cutting back of the leaves which can only  be performed when the sun is weaker and in the vineyards

Bonella showing us Sangiovese

which we pick last. This operation allows the grapes to dry quickly, in case of rain, and avoids them being attacked by mould. This is therefore a natural way to try and avoid any mould problems. We only ever use anti-mould products in the event of very severe weather conditions.
The harvest will begin with the Traminer grapes at the end of August,  in early September we plan to start on the Merlot and between 10th and 15th the Sangiovese will probably be ready for picking.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini

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Agivi – “Associazione giovani imprenditori vinicoli italiani” organizes its annual general meeting in Tuscany and a dinner with dancing at Casato Prime Donne

AGIVI at Casato Prime Donne

Saturday June 25th, great summer heat and the desire to stay together in a cheerful atmosphere. The young wine producers, guided by Carlotta Pasqua, are at the Terme di Petriolo for their annual meeting. Upon their return from Vinexpo, the wine fair in Bordeaux, they had their meeting and followed a lesson on marketing by Professor Alberto Mattiacci from the Università  La Sapienza di Roma.
The rest of the weekend was dedicated to consolidating their rapports: friendships born from similar interests and from a style of life which includes airline flights and vineyards, country life and stays in large cities all over the world where they promote their wines.  The excursion to  Montalcino begins with a tour of the Poggio Antico winery which belongs to Paola Gloder and continued in the spirit of  “winemaking friendship”, with a rustic dinner at Casato Prime Donne and a dance among the  Brunello  vines with a  DJ and open bar with the wines offered by the members.
Agivi, is an association born in 1989 with the goal of giving young wine producers the experiences and contacts to help them have success in their career. Violante Gardini (Donatella Cinelli Colombini and Carlo Gardini’s daughter) is a member of the board of directors.

Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda

“Traveller” UK  from the “Condé Nast” editorial group, so as if to say, the queen of tourism magazines, in the May 2011 edition has published the 10 most beautiful wineries to visit in Toscana and Umbria, ours are in third position.

A bronze medal for Donatella Cinelli Colombini wineries, surpassed only by Tenuta di Capezzana and Fonterutoli.  An unexpected but very welcomed honour which projects us among the  excellent destinations of Italian wine tourism. In our wineries the tours are different to other places. At Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda the visit includes the halls of 16th century villa with the bedroom which once belonged to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the chapel, the gardens, and obviously the winery which produces Chianti and Doc Orcia wines. The tour begins in a medieval hermitage, crosses the remains of a tower and finally rises up into the loft where the Vinsanto caratelli are stored.
At Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino  the Brunello barrels are alternated with frescoes regarding Montalcino’s

Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino

 history, and the  hall for the wine tastings exhibits the most beautiful photographs of the Val d’Orcia  from the last 10 years. For those who would like to work off some of the wine tasted , before driving once again there is a path through the Sangiovese vineyards with panoramic resting spots where works of contemporary art and quotations from famous women enrich the landscape.