In the language of the ‘Wine Advocate’ these ratings correspond to great wines with exceptional complexity and character. In short they are magnificent wines

Brunello and Brunello Prime Donne 2007 Brunello Riserva 2006

Definitely Antonio Galloni, the super-taster from the ‘ Wine Advocate’, appreciates Brunello: out of 173 he tasted, he awarded 78% with over 90 points. A stratospheric judgment perhaps unequalled in the world. Indeed no other wine, as far as I can see, has achieved such a high average and homogeneous result as the Brunello. On the hills of Montalcino, our soil, the climate and above all the passion of our winemakers creates a winning combination like no other. In other wine producers you find the highest vertices and the deepest chasms, whilst we, who are amongst the least well known and appreciated, achieved an overall ‘Very good’. So we are a team of champions! My Brunello fared well: 93/100 for the Brunello Riserva 2006, 92/100 for the Brunello 2007 and the Brunello Prime Donne achieved 90/100, this wine, which definitely is the most traditional and austere of all the range also is the one with the most character and the one which sends the strongest message. A blockbuster success, for us and for the whole of the Montalcino territory, which in recent years has been able to regain momentum and achieve international recognition. In fact, the positive reviews are not limited to the U.S.A. Even the magazine ‘Vinum, the most important in Germany, has published a tasting of 87 Brunello wines, with an evaluation of between 15.5 and 18 of out of 20 (scores in Europe are in twentieths) in other words between good and excellent. Ours are inserted amongst the ‘Terroir’, in other words those wines related to a specific territory, and they achieved a score of 16.5 / 20. A positive result in which we rejoice. Because our competitors are so strong, it is the like the feeling of being a tenant farmer toiling on a piece of land, we are forced to work hard and do our best because absolutely all the other tenants working the same land are producing excellent top quality produce.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The site is called Cellar Tracker, it allows wine appreciators to give their personal opinion on wine. It has been created in a formula similar to that of ‘Tripadvisor’ which is a website used for tourism. Judgments both positive and negative and as to the competence of the wine are noted and using this data two researchers made a study comparing the wine appreciation opinions from the experts to those of the actual wine consumers, these researchers were Omer Gokcekus and Dennis Nottebaufm (American Association of Wine Economists, September 2011)

Haut Brion

These two researchers compared the opinions of the wine community with those of the Wine Spectator, the  Wine Advocate and Stephan Tanzer  and in doing so experienced a substantial correlation of views, although with a greater consistency towards agreeing with the comments of Stephen Tanzer. It seems indeed that the wine drinking community is comfortable to sometimes differ in their views compared  to the views of the two most authoritative wine guides, and appear not to be exclusively influenced by their opinions

This website is a great opportunity for those who like to taste and appreciate wines and who would like their individual voices to be heard. Cellar Tracker is a platform where they can state their opinions and compare them with those of other wine lovers. Any review which they make can be seen by hundreds, sometimes thousands of people. In short, those who want to feel like Robert Parker Jr. for a day need only to write on Cellar Tracker.

Esquin Wine Merciant

Cellar Tracker was created in 2003 by Eric Le Vine, a Microsoft programmer who is very interested in wine. It contains a review of 27 million bottles.
It makes you wonder whether consumers will eventually move away from basing their choice of  wine on the judgements and opinions of important wine publications and famous experts towards using the social network forums to note comments and read opinions from other wine lovers, this is what is starting  to happen in the Tourist industry where people take note of the opinions of other tourists who have visited the hotels, restaurants etc. The growing power of the Web has both advantages and disadvantages. The upside is that the opinions expressed are not easily influenced by the wine producers themselves as they are expressed by private individuals who have personal preferences and no hidden agendas, the downside is of course that the comments are made by a mixture of competent tasters and those who are absolutely incompetent with no experience or knowledge of wine tasting, but only with a desire to be noticed in a public forum. And of course it is virtually impossible to distinguish one from the other. We can only hope that the wine industry does not suffer the same misfortunes as others have in the past, where some of  the individuals using social networks have caused collapses in companies and industries by spreading false news. In conclusion let us hope and request that those who are not truly wine experts should at least be prudent in their comments and avoid making judgements.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini

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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Chronicles of Violante Gardini (Cinelli Colombini Jr) – our introduction into the world of wine

Mondavi Winery

A week of visits to the wineries of Sonoma and Napa valley for the students of the Master OIV – the International Organisation for Vineyards and Wine.

We visited various wineries which were situated in the areas of Lodi, Sonoma and Napa, interestingly all of them differed from each other quite considerably. Some of the wineries had huge vats, one of which had a filter which was as big as our entire wine cellar. Interestingly the wine which they produced, in my opinion, was not very good. Other wineries were much smaller, and of these, in my opinion, the most interesting and distinctive ones were those created by Robert Mondavi.   He is one of the most successful Californian wine producers in the world. It is a pity that in the end, after having financed the creation of the Department of wine in Davis University, and after having built impressive cellars such as Opus One, Mondavi has had to sell everything to one of the large multinational wine companies,  Constellation.
In a visit to the Opus One we were accompanied by experienced winemaker Michael Silacci, an individual  who has worked in this wine cellar for more than10 years. He is a person who has a great passion for his wine which he enthusiastically shared with all of his audience. He told us how the concept of this project came about and explained the collaboration between Robert Mondavi and Philippe de Rothschild who wanted to create something unique together, almost like the composers of old must have felt about composing the ‘First Opera’. They considered everything, the architecture, the vineyards, the technology – I was also very impressed by the fact that Mr.Silacci is very careful to listen to the advice and tips given to him by his workers and assistants, a very surprising and pleasing method of management practise to find, especially in a cellar as well known as Opus One.

Violante in Opus One vineyards

Harvesting by night. In this part of America it is really cold at night, it is only after 11am in the morning that the sun rises sufficiently to let the heat from the sun to begin to warm us all.

Silacci told us  that during one of the first years that he worked in this area he decided to implement one of the ideas which had come to him during a particularly restless and sleepless night . A few days before the beginning of the harvest he gathered together all of his pickers and gave them the following instructions “I’ll see you tomorrow at 2” , everyone thought at first that he was referring to 2 pm in the afternoon so then had to explain that instead of 2 o’clock in the afternoon he meant 2am in the middle of the night. In the first few hours of the harvest he went to check that the pickers were all ok but he felt so cold that he decided they must all feel the same as him, half frozen to death. So he ran to get them all some coffee and  warm croissants and distributed them all amongst his workers, it was only after he had given out all the warming food and drinks that he realized that pickers hadn’t been cold at all because they were not standing still like him, but by working hard picking the grapes they were kept nice and warm!!! However a precedent had been set and from that day on the harvesting for the Opus One winery continues to take place at night and always, at the end of the first day of harvesting, they continue the tradition of drinking hot coffee and eating warm  croissants in the vineyards in the middle of the night!
Opus One 2005, is definitely my absolute favourite amongst all Californian wines which I have tasted during my time in this area (88% Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc 3%, 5% Merlot, Malbec 1% and 3% Petit Verdot). Not only is it delicious, but for me, it symbolises courage, geniality, good business sense and a desire to win. The entire production has only one label and all the bottles are sold at extremely high prices even in the cellar itself.
The Mondavi Winery’s wines have not left me speechless with their quality and taste, but they will always continue to be one of the most famous cellars in the world…
In the Sonoma Valley, my favourite wine was “Tribute” 2007 which is almost entirely biodynamic (organic crops) and which is produced by a  winery called the “Benziger Family Winery“.
We visited the vineyards on an electric train, but what initially we assumed would be a very ‘touristy visit’ then proved to be a wonderful experience, thanks to the lady who accompanied us. Joe Benziger put so much passion into what she said that we all too became enthusiastic through her energetic delivery. According to her, the energy comes from the Sonoma land, which was originally volcanic, an area which has been famous for its wine for a considerable time. In any case, for whatever the reason, the final result was that we were left with a very strong positive impression, definitely we could feel the metaphoric heat from that extinct volcano!!!

A group of the top 32 wine producers from Montalcino, led by the Vice-President of the Consortium Donatella Cinelli Colombini, have been in Sao Paulo, the economic capital of South America , in order to introduce their Brunello wines personally to Brasil.

Brunello wine producers at Terrazza Italia

The wine has been presented to the press and the local wine producers and experts: Banfi, Barbi, Camigliano Canneta, Capanna, Caparzo, Caprili,Castelli – Martinozzi, Castello di Romitorio, Col d’ Orcia, Collemattoni, Corte Pavone, Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Fanti, Gianni Brunelli, Il Poggione, La Gerla, La Magia, Le Chiuse, Mocali, Poggio di Sotto, Poggio il Castellare, Salvioni, Sassodisole, Siro Pacenti, Talenti, Tassi,  Tenuta di Collesorbo , Tenute Friggiali and Pietranera, Val di Cava, Verbena, Villa Le Prata, were all represented.

Brazil is country which is a member of the BRIC  – it is one of the major countries of the world which is currently experiencing an  economic boom –  out of the south American countries is one of the only ones which has  a strong and influential Italian presence. In the Sao Paulo area alone there are 16,000,000 inhabitants of Italian descent.

Our Brunello wineries were visiting San Paulo with the specific aim of expanding their exports and promoting their own image, which is already very well known and respected in the area. In Brazil,  Brunello wine is  synonymous with quality, it has great prestige value and is considered to be very exclusive . Many people know the wine well, but never before they had the opportunity to taste and compare so many of the Brunello wines  all together at their leisure. And it is precisely attaining the public’s awareness and their personal opinions that these important Tuscan wineries intend to devote their attention to: they will be concentrating on impressing their importers, the sommeliers, the press and the leading public opinions.

Market in San Paolo

The program of this trade mission to Brazil was very intense: it  lasted 5 days and as well as promoting the wine it also helped to educate the producers from Montalcino in the details of the Brazilian market ecomony and included a visit to the huge upmarket supermarkets which are major centres of culinary excellence for Brazilain customers with greater spending capacity. The Consorzio del Brunello  had never  before undertaken a trade missions such as this to Brazil and for this reason, the schedule was very full and was designed to hit all the strategic market segments of Brazil. Two of the tastings have been reserved exclusively for the Sommeliers from Sao Paulo and Campinas, there was one  evening with the specialist wine press, one workshop for the importers and one for the retailers, a wine tasting for the Friends Association of Wine and 3 educational seminars with video and data information. The preparation of this trade mission to Brazil has required months of work in order to plan and prepare this detailed  program – in collaboration with ICE and Enoteca Italiana -  especially in the preparation of the Brochures, Wine tasting information leaflets  and the production of the two Videos, which have also  been made available in Portuguese.

San Paolo

In the South American countries import taxes multiple  the price of bottles of wine tenfold which is why they are perceived by  the public as being luxury goods. Because of this it is necessary to ensure that the public perception of the Montalcino wines is that they are of the highest quality as it is important  to capture the interest and admiration of the 200,000 super-rich and the middle class who have a large spending capacity and who reside almost entirely in the areas of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.