An experience of aromas, great wines, and traditional food at Fattoria del Colle following Gloria and Violante on a sensorial trail

Shiseido - Féminité du bois - Fattoria del Colle -Gloria and Violante

Saturday May12th. A double birthday: 140 years of Shiseido and 40 years of the Profumeria Nella in Sinalunga, a myth for the women in southern Tuscany. The party, organized by Gloria, owner of the perfume shop and by Violante young export manager for Donatella Cinelli Colombini, is a mixture of transgression, sophistication and tradition.

The guests were taken along a multisensory itinerary which began in the park where they discovered the Féminité du bois, a perfume created by Serge Lutens for Shiseido. This is a first step towards the magic, with witches, fairies and pixies which seem to jump out of the bottles of perfume: violate, orange mixed with cedar, ginger and vanilla finishing with cinnamon and cloves. An experience which emphasizes the beauty of the park at Fattoria del Colle and which is matched with rosato IGT 2011 Rosa di tetto. It too begins with violet aromas which then develop in the mouth with intense and long tasting suggestions

First food tasting and then the sensorial trip continues in the 16th century

Fattoria del Colle-Billiard room –presentation of the Chergui fragrance – Cenerentola wine

villa at Fattoria del Colle where the second phase begins with another perfume: Chergui. The wine tasting becomes more complex even though the protagonist is Cenerentola Doc Orcia 2007 a sumptuous red which accompanies traditional dishes such as “ sedanini con sugo bugiardo” and “ il timballo di baccalà”.

Last phase of the multisensory itinerary is in the park in front of the old olive mill, where the scenography is ready for the cutting of the birthday cake and the presentation of the new perfume called L’Eau. Here lemon is the protagonist and is called upon to be in prime position on the composition for the table.

At the end, tired but happy, Gloria and Violante say goodbye to the guests and receive great compliments for having organized a great special evening getting all to discover the art of appreciating aromas and experiencing olfactory emotions
Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The talented French winemaker came to us for a brief visit during which she sampled our 2011 vintage wines and the Brunello 2008.  She was very excited about the 2011 vintage and was happy with the Brunello.  According to Valerie Lavigne the Brunello 2011 from Casato Prime Donne will be better than the legendary 2010. We hope she’s right!

Valérie Lavigne and Barbara Magnani

She argues that the most important element of our Montalcino wines is their elegance.  She feels that some other types of vines may be able to grow successfully in this terrain but they would not produce the winning power of our wines.
She asked our agronomist Folco Bencini to stop weeding in the vineyards. Weeding causes soil pollution and impoverishes the soil, it can also damage the quality of the grapes. That is good advice Valerie, let’s go back to the old traditional systems of caring for the vines.
Gradually Dr. Lavigne is leading us into the new future of wine making which combines the benefits of using nature itself, ensuring excellence in all areas and taking advantage of scientific advances.

Today, together with Valerie, we posed for photos by the excellent Bruno Bruchi which will appear in the book Brunello di Montalcino

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

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.

Leone rosso Orcia Doc 2007, Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The Leone Rosso Doc Orcia  has obtained extraordinary results from the most authoritative wine magazine in the world, Wine Spectator

After the 91 /100 rating in fact arrives the Top Values which declare it 11th  among the Italian Reds under 25$  for the quality-price ratio and 93rd among the best 383 wines in the world between 15$ and 25$, again for the quality-price ratio.

The Leone Rosso is the first wine made by Barbara Magnani, cellar mater in Donatella Cinelli Colombini wineries. Barbara has created an elegant wine from 60% Sangiovese and 40%  Merlot grapes from Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda, vinified and aged separately, for six montis in French oak barrels which had already been used once before.
For information:
Donatella Cinelli Colombini Az. Agr.
vino@cinellicolombini.it
www.cinellicolombini.it
tel.+39  0577 662108