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Brunello Riserva 2012 five stars

Brunello Riserva is an extraordinary wine because it can last for decades. At Casato Prime Donne it is produced only in the best harvests

Brunello di Montalcino Riserva DOCG 2012

The production of Brunello Riserva depends on the climate, the rainfall and the sun, mostly during August and September. It is possible to know right from the tasting of the grapes, this is when the picking dates are chosen. If in the vineyards there are Sangiovese grapes of extraordinary quality then it is possible to produce the Brunello Riserva.

That is the reason why it is made only in certain years and the quantity differs every time, even though it is always a small production. These productions are in fact always less than the requests by collectors and wine lovers from all over the world who wish to store these bottles in their cellars for important events.

The grapes nearly always come from a vineyard called Ardita on the highest point of Casato Prime Donne. This plot where the best clusters come from is delimited with red flags, the 5-7 hl French oak barrels where the Brunello Riserva ages for about three years are also flagged with red heart.  Small signs that help the grape growers and the cellar staff remember where the small masterpiece is born, this masterpiece that needs constant care and attention until bottling time.

Brunello Riserva is made for a lengthy ageing. This means that it must have a tannic and acidic structure able to preserve it in time. To balance these characteristics and make it pleasing even when young it is necessary that there be richness in fruit (polyphenols) that give aroma and balance the power. The Brunello Riserva 2012 has all these characteristics.

Type: dry red.

Production area: Tuscany, Montalcino, Casato Prime Donne.

Vintage characteristics: Cold and dry winter with lots of snow. Very hot summer until September when the rain showers slowed the ripening of the grapes allowing the sugars to build up in the berries at the same rate as the growth of the extractable polyphenols.

Grape type: 100% Sangiovese (Brunello).

Grape harvest: from September 12-14th. Small clusters with regular ripening. Grapes seeds completely lignified. The harvest was manual, with a careful selection of the grapes, after two women on the sorting table discarded the defected berries.

Donatella-Cinelli-Colombini- 2012-harvest

Vinification: In stainless steel truncated cone shaped vats, each individually temperature controlled and open on top, so as to vinify without the use of pumps. The alcoholic fermentation went regularly with spontaneously low temperatures. It lasted 16 days and was then followed by 20 days of maceration.

Barrel ageing:  5 -7 hl small French oak tonneaux produced by 5 artisans who assure manual production. The type of oak, charring and dimension of the barrels has been specifically chosen based on the character of the wine. There has been no filtering before bottling.

Brunello Prime Donne 2013, marvelous

Brunello Prime Donne 2013

Brunello Prime Donne 2013 is a masterpiece produced only in a limited number of bottles. Just 6,300 botles for those who love a traditional style

The  Brunello di Montalcino Prime Donne 2013 will surprise you because of its aromas of small red fruits and spices, because it spreads in the mouth with a powerful and harmonious taste that lasts at length

A long lasting and pleasing wine that has beaten the initial forecasts, as in the past happened for the Brunello 1999.

In fact everyone had understood the “old style” of the 2013 harvest but only a few had foreseen its finesse, its quality and most of all its ability to last in time, revealed only after this Brunello was aged in barrel.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini considers the Brunello Prime Donne the flagship for her wineries, the first in Italy with an all female staff.

The idea for this wine was born in 1998 when Donatella noticed that the wine tasters for the Italian wine guides were all men. She decided then to reunite a group of great female wine experts asking them to taste, in a blind tasting, the future Brunello from different barrels, and to choose the one they liked the best. A way of stating that women’s’ tastes are important and that women tasters are just as clever as their male colleagues.

A dragon shaped QR code

The Il Drago e le 8 Colombe wine tells its story through a QR Code on the label, containing curiosities in Italian and in English

Il Drago e le 8 Colombe IGT Fattoria del Colle Toscana

For someone who thinks she knows about wine communication this really is the limit:  Donatella Cinelli Colombini is one of the last to do wine storytelling on the label …. But those who drink her Drago e le 8 Colombe will be able to learn about the strange name chosen for the wine, and the strange blend, by simply scanning the QR code with their mobile phone. A way to discover the Tuscan traits not only in the glass but also through descriptions.

Il Drago e le 8 Colombe comes from Fattoria del Colle in the middle of the oldest and best preserved area of Tuscany and it brings with it aroma of ripe red fruits and the powerful and harmonious taste typical of a hilly territory where the aril is clean and the ripening of the grapes is slow. Typical food in this region grilled beef steak and pecorino cheese, both wonderfully matched with the Il Drago e le 8 Colombe IGT Toscana.

Il Drago e le 8 Colombe IGT Violante Gardini Cinellicolombini Jr

The vineyards are cultivated following the organic regime and by hand as has been done for centuries. In the cellar there are only women. But there is also a dragon this is Carlo Gardini, husband to Donatella Cinelli Colombini the owner, he is one of the initiators of the new experimentations. A game of symbols that say that the Fattoria del Colle winery is feminine not feminist because the great wines have no gender and they are produced and consumed by those who love nature, culture and good things.

Montalcino a village of wine and wine sellers

Let’s take a peek at the wine stores and restaurants in Montalcino to see how wine tourism is changing and how the trade that welcomes it changes too

Enoteca-Pierangioli- Montalcino-Stefania

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Brunello, Casato Prime Donne

On one thing everyone agrees << 2017 has been a great year for tourism in the Brunello region>> . Helped by the hot climate that has urged people to leave the cities, but has put our vines through great difficulties, but it also has increases tourism in the countryside by putting in a line row and rows of fantastic beautiful days.

Lots of tourists and lots of tasting and shopping.

While talking to those who work in contact with tourists it is possible to discover some curious things.  The wine lovers who come to Montalcino desire most of all to discover Brunello and concentrate their buying sprees on this <<they are not even interested in the Rosso di Montalcino, they want only Brunello>> says Sergio Pierangioli who however admits <<your Cenerentola Doc Orcia sells well, maybe it’s because of the name, maybe because of the label, maybe because it is different …>>.

Enoteca-BD-Bruno Dalmazio-Montalcino

There is though another sort of wine lover that wants to taste and most of all buy excellent bottles from the most famous Italian appellations and so has stores ship them home bottles of Barolo, Amarone, Aglianico … <<they do not have the time to visit all of the famous wine regions but they want to buy these wines because in Brazil or Canada they would cost much much more>> they explain in the BD Bruno Dalmazio wine store.