Vines and wines

New millionaire wine making neighbours in Tuscany

The Tuscan wine making regions, especially Montalcino, attract people with immense fortunes who want to see their name on dream bottles

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The castle of Colle Massari winery

Next door to Casato Prime Donne a property has been bought by Alejandro Pedro Bulgheroni Argentinean billionaire from the petrol sector with investments al lover the world and vineyards in Argentina, Uruguay and California. We expect him to transform the present rural buildings, in front of us, into a villa with heliport.

The new owner of Argiano, still in the Brunello area, is a Brazilian indicated by Forbes as one of the 300 richest men in the world. He has fallen in love with the splendid 16th century villa built according to a project by Baldassarre Peruzzi – a sort of Tuscan Chateau – and with the noble history of this location where, among others, Foscolo, Carducci, D’Annunzio and Zolà have stayed.

Fireworks for the Benvenuto Brunello 2013 edition

Glamorous, rural, traditional and new….. here’s Benvenuto Brunello 2013 in front of and behind the scenes

Young producers for Benvenuto Brunello 2013

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Certainly the 135 wineries present have brought some excellent Brunello 2008 which are immediately enjoyable. Some say that they are so good now that they will not age well, I am convinced that that is not true, and that these have been vinified better that in the past and so consequently will last decades, or event centuries.

I do not wish to talk about the wines, if not to say that mine – from Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino – have been liked by all (were you expecting me to say the contrary?)- instead I would like to tell you some curiosities. First of all the Gala party in the cloister in Sant’Agostino. 50 tables with a mirror surface and chandeliers one meter high in transparent Plexiglas. Tablecloths, serviettes, seat covers, water glasses and even the cutlery all black. In other words quite a Hollywood style that however gave a glamorous touch to our usual restrained Montalcino manner. Those present at Benvenuto Brunello for the first time actually goggled, like Federico Castellucci Direttore generale OIV who said << you have nothing to envy from the French, these evening is fantastic>> and then in a whisper –I was not expecting anything of this level, I wish to compliment you.!-

Brunello in Washington, the centre of the world

A day’s work in the cold in Washington with just a little time for tourism with the Brunello producers

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Us Capitol in Washington, Donatella and Carlo

We were up at the crack of dawn, and then took a taxi to Penn Station, the enormous underground station next to Madison Square Garden where Nino Benvenuti’s international boxing contests took place. Here we take a train with very large wagons but they are so old that for 2 hours 45 minutes they shake us ‘til we reach Washington. Once out of the splendid Victoria station we are in front of the United States Capitol, what a sight! The small group of representatives of the Consorzio del Brunello and I had planned a day at the Italian Embassy. The building was constructed in 2001; it is square shaped and has a spectacular glass-domed atrium. There are archaeological objects exhibited and a hall dedicated to Falcone and Borsellino with the photos of the two magistrates killed by the mafia.

After a long meeting and a buffet enriched with 20 odd bottles of Brunello, including mine, – which is something that I am particularly proud of- we are finally free to roam as tourists.

Preview of the Brunello 2008 previews

A series of 12 new spectacular Brunello to begin the new year of the Union Européenne des Gourmets di Siena with a memorable event.

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The Siena Consul Siena Alessandro Bonelli promises sparks in 2013 with wine tastings, conferences and tours of excellent producers. The beginning is a triumph, 12 wines that resemble the leading players on the Italian Premier league: Canalicchio di sopra, Capanna, Altesino, Costanti, Solaria, Casanova di Neri, Talenti, Fanti, Siro Pacenti, Banfi-Poggio alle Mura and of course Donatella Cinelli Colombini.

Nobody will quickly forget this wine tasting for its very elevated quality level and for the excitement in tasting them for the very first time. In fact the first official tasting of the new Brunello took place in the USA first and then in Montalcino.

Houston places Brunello sky high

A tasting of 41 Montalcino wineries in Houston – Texas attracts operators from hundreds of kilometres and even from other states

shoes_from_Texas

The USA are now the largest Brunello market, even larger than Italy. They absorb 25% of the total production, which means one bottle of Brunello very four. If we consider that most of the wine sold in Montalcino is sold to foreign tourists Italy goes below this quota and become the second market. It seems strange but that is how it is!

For this reason the first important tasting of the new Brunello 2008 takes place in the USA even before the Benvenuto Brunello kermess in Montalcino.

Every year the presentation in the USA takes place in New York and in another key city. This year for the first time we are in Texas, and it’s a success.

Don’t think of cowboys and cattle, here there is true richness, petrol, an industry bound to electronics, here is found the best hospital in the world and the largest university if the States. A less formal lifestyle and dress style but, many dollars…everything is big, exaggeratedly big!

The Brunello tasting location is a structure used for banquets, with a large hall and a smaller one for the two seminars held by Kevin Zraly a wine expert and tutor for wine courses of international fame.

Here’s for you the Brunello Prime Donne 2008

The Brunello dedicated to women, in the direction for Sangiovese and Montalcino tipicity, a new research of personality and finesse with little “oak effect”

Brunello2008_PrimeDonne

The Brunello Prime Donne 2008 expresses its full belonging to the identity of Sangiovese and Montalcino. In other words it exalts those characteristics of the grape variety and of the Brunello territory that right on the Montalcino hill reach their excellence. A choice that puts the wine’s personality in the role as protagonist. The choice of refined style is also evident: a togetherness of harmony, elegance, roundness and lengthiness.

The effect of the barrel ageing, where the wine has rested for more than two years, becomes softer also because of the choice of medium and large barrels after the winemaker Valerie Lavigne asked us to empty our cellar of barriques.

2012 a sunny balance at the end of the year for Donatella Cinelli Colombini

2012 a very tiring year where a lot of work has been done. Great awards, successes, small commercial progress and great difficulties tied to the International crisis.

Vinitaly 2012 - Donatella Cinelli Colombini - Premio Internazionale Vinitaly

The best image of the past year is of the Premio internazionale Vinitaly received directly from the President Mr. Riello and the General Manager of Veronafiere Giovanni Mantovani. Such an important award which I shared with Debra Meiburg the Master of Wine who rates 7th in the list of most powerful women in wine in the world.

A good portrait of the increase in quality of the wines from this cellar is given by the image of 5 wines with ratings over 90/100 in Wine Spectator: Il Drago e le 8 Colombe, Cenerentola, Brunello, Brunello Prime Donne and Riserva, the latter with 95/100 is in the Olympus of the 18 Italian “Top Wines” chosen by Wine Spectator. The Brunello Prime Donne is among those Highly Recommended by “Decanter” and among the three preferred by the Master of Wine Rosemary George.

From 10 to 600.000 € per hectare. How much an hectare of vineyard in Italy?

From 10.000 € in Copertino in Puglia to 600.000€ in Lago di Caldaro in Alto Adige there are all sorts of prices in Italy.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Montalcino-Wine-area

A recent article in the “Corriere Vinicolo” (26 November pp.20-21) creates a map of value of Italian vineyards, underlining the decrease in sales but also the stable prices regardless of the economic crisis our Nation is facing. The report carried out by Inea points out how in Italy, from the beginning of the Millennium, the value of vineyards has increate by 28% consequently more than inflation, so in real terms, it has grown by 2% and all of this regardless of the contraction in prices which took place after 2008.

The average value of one hectare on a National level is of 36.000€ which means a lot more than that of other cultivations which is o f about 19.400€.

What does this survey say then about the period  2010-2011: negative period for prices of vineyards for  Veneto and Tuscany regions  In the latter the land for producing  Brunello and Chianti Classico have decreased in value , even if just a little.

Brunello di Montalcino 2008 to begin at best the 2013

We are waiting for you at Casato Prime Donne, in Montalcino, and at Fattoria del Colle (Trequanda SI), to taste the first Brunello 2008 just born.

Brunello_2008_CasatoPrimeDonne_2

At midnight on New Year’s Eve the red wine from Montalcino that producers have cared for with love for 4 and a half years has become Brunello.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini owner of Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino often says that she is very lucky in truth; many favourable circumstances help her producing great red wines. One of these lucky elements has been the change in climate with the increase in temperatures, which has increased her vines potential. In fact the high clayey content of the soil allows water to collect and quench the vines during the hot summer month in so allowing the grapes to

Casato_Prime_Donne

reach complete ripening very gradually. This reserve of water would not be possible in soils with more drainage considering the “monsoon” type of rainfalls. Obviously nature does not do everything alone, it is man through the winter and summer pruning who reduces the number of clusters, reduces the active leaf surface using it for shade.

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A fantastic 5 star Brunello Riserva 2007

Exalting of the typicity of the Sangiovese and of Montalcino, an effect of the climatic changes, new vineyards who have reached their production maturity for a great Brunello Riserva 2007

Brunello_2007_riserva

The Brunello wine becomes Riserva when at its best, for this reason Donatella Cinelli Colombini just like all the other producers in Montalcino, takes care of it more than any other wine, in the vineyard and in the cellar.

This Brunello Riserva shows in a more evident way than the three previous vintages the change in style of the Casato Prime Donne winery, whose goal is to exalt the typical elements of Sangiovese from Montalcino: a graceful and austere elegance that only on the Montalcino hill reach levels of absolute excellence. Such results are possible thanks also to the climatic changes which favour Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s vineyards, situated in a cool area of Montalcino, where the soil is rich in clay and consequently able to capture rainfall and release it during the hotter months. The new vineyard Ardita, planted in 2001, has finally reached its productive maturity and expresses very high levels of excellence. That is the vineyard that supplies us with the grapes for this extraordinary Brunello Riserva.

Donatella awarded by the Inner Wheel Club Firenze Iris

Even those who have received many prizes like “Lady Brunello” Donatella Cinelli Colombini, when they are awarded the Inner Wheel di Firenze Iris show great emotion.

Donatella_Inner_Woman_2012_with_the_award

Past winners of this award are prestigious women: women of culture like Dacia Maraini and Ilaria Occhini, the doctor Maria Luisa Brandi, the film maker Cinzia T.H. Torrini and the scientist Margherita Hack.

This is consequently an important prize given by the President Gianna Baudo Bacchi in the splendid frame of the Villa Viviani in Settignano, a short distance from the Casa di Boccaccio where Donatella has her Florentine and where, in the 14^th century the author of the Decamerone lived.

The award solemnizes the Inner Day, the International celebration day for this association, which the Club Firenze Iris celebrates with particular solemnity. The award goes to a woman who chosen among the candidates proposed by the Tuscan Inner Wheel members. Donatella Cinelli Colombini received her nomination form the Siena Club and from two excellent sponsors, the President Lucia Galleni Fornaciari and the Past president Cecilia Cateni Mittica.

Autochthonous yeasts from hornets in our Brunello

Native yeasts are trendy and more frequently they are used to protect the typicality of a wine, just as Donatella Cinelli Colombini has done

But is it as marketing ploy or is it really an identifying element?

Tinaia-del-vento

We believe that they really are an identifying element. At Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino we use native yeast chosen in 2008.  It is not a contradiction. It is a practice which is scientifically flawless  (carried out for us by the Oliver Ogar laboratories): it is in fact possible to isolate strains present in a spontaneous fermentation to then reproduce them in the laboratory and use them for production. We have tried three of them and one of them has given extraordinary results. In the logic of increasing the Exchange between Vineyard and insects we built the  vinification area called Tinaia del Vento – where we vinify the Brunello in truncated-cone shaped vats, open on top. The results have been excellent.