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Brunello di Montalcino 2011 surprising and feminine

4 stars vintage, the most anticipated and the quickest we’ve ever seen. The grapes were sound but with very few clusters that at Casato Prime Donne have been handled with the most gentleness.

Brunello di Montalcino 2011 Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Montalcino Casato Prime Donne Tinaia del vento

Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s wineries are the fist to have an all female staff. This is a project born in 1998 especially for the production of Brunello when Donatella tried to find a cellar master to take care of her wines when her parents gave her two wineries, to be renovated – Casato in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in southern Chianti. Finding a young cellar master proved to be quite difficult; there were though many young girls, with the same title who could find no winery prepared to give them the technical management. It is quite form this episode that the idée of an all female project begins with the scope of demonstrating women’s’ ability in wine. Now 17 years later and thanks also to global warming, that has given the vineyards in Montalcino a much superior quality potential than in the past, Casato Prime Donne has progressively distinguished itself for the production of a traditional Brunello of high quality and extreme elegance. Harmonic wines then and very satisfying right from the beginning and at the same time long lasting thanks to the slow and gradual ripening of the grapes. Today Brunello from Casato Prime Donne is exported to 34 countries and it’s appreciated by the most important international specialized press.

9 January 2016

Copate: typical Sienese torrone

This is one of the least known traditional Sienese Christmas cakes, it is delicious and among the most expensive, best enjoyed with a glass of Vinsanto

Le Copate

The origin of this cake is uncertain, as is the origin of its name. The word “copata” should derive from Latin “copatus” which in this case, would take on the meaning coupled, to indicate that the mixture is enclosed among two hosts, but it is also possible that it might come from the Arab “qubbaita”, which means “almond cake”, and this would prove that its story begins very far away.

8 January 2016

Black crostini: typical tuscan appetizer

In Tuscany the black crostini represent the one and only authentic antipasto but there preparation is not always identical, it has changed in time and joins tradition and novelties.

Tuscan “black Crostini”

By Alice Bracciali, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda

The black crostini take up all the standard ingredients from the festive period and not only as explained by Michela Badii in her book “Cibo in festa fra tradizione e trasformazioni”: chicken livers, herbs, stale bread and vin santo were always in our grandparents cupboards., The reason for their success was probably due to the refined taste and the uniqueness of the dish: a refined and sophisticated recipe born from the simplicity d basic techniques of the farming cuisine. The recipe has been modified many times, the ingredients of the farming tradition have been substituted with more refined raw materials, the cookery method has evolved together with technology and the cooking time is a lot shorter.

6 January 2016

Grappa di Cenerentola and the fairytale has a new flavour

Cenerentola Doc Orcia is Violante Gardini’s favourite wine (Cinellicolombini Jr); she has hence created a grappa in small bottles quite apt for young princesses

CENERENTOLA GRAPPA and shapper bag

<< I am a great romantic and the Cinderella fairytale always made me dream, also the Cenerentola wine is the one I love most, for this reason I have created a young grappa from one grape variety dressing it like a princess, elegant and trendy>> says Violante when talking about her first marketing project for 600 small but very refined bottles of Grappa di Cenerentola.

GRAPPA FROM FOGLIA TONDA GRAPES
First of all the grappa: one must remember that it comes from the distillation of the grape-skins extracted from the vats and pressed, when the fermentation is finished and the wine is racked into another container. Violante has used the Foglia Tonda skins, a local autochthonous variety o grapes from the Siena region used only for the production of the ’Orcia Doc “Cenerentola”. She has chosen the “Distillerie Alboni Srl” for the distillation, a small artisanal workshop in Mensanello, near Colle Val d’Elsa, so quite close and where the grape skins reach still warm. The facility uses the discontinuous system with vapour from two boilers and a still where everything is done manually and the process is very long.

GRAPPA DI CENERENTOLA

PACKAGING: CENERENTOLA BECOMES A YOUNG PRINCESS

<<I only had 120 litres of grappa but it was precisely for this reason, the exceptional quality of this brandy distilled product obtained from a rare and old grape variety, Foglia Tonda, of which Fattoria del Colle is the major producer, that I had the idea of a challenge. A new type of packaging: a very small 20 c bottle, like perfume, pace in a shiny black mini-shopper-bag, Like those we young women use to go to the beach with our friends>>

31 December 2015

2015 Donatella's wonderful year

With my very best wishes for a Happy 2016, where everyone should have their dreams fulfilled. Here below a summary of the last exceptional 12 months.

MINERVA AWARD TO DONATELLA CINELLI COLOMBINI

2016 is the year of MERCIFULNESS, for all, even those who do not believe, should lie in a special way to become constructors of e better world.

2015 is to be framed. A year lived on the run, always-, 12 trips abroad for Donatella and even more for Violante. A book, 2 new wines, a new grappa, many successes, events and awards

FEBRUARY

Meeting with James Suckling king of the Brunello lovers. Toscana previews: 60 buyers for the Doc Orcia and an-out-of-this-world Benvenuto Brunello with the exceptional 2010 vintage

MARCH

Lady Day at the Quirinal in Rome for Donatella and in Colle Val d’Elsa Violante Organizes Cantine aperte di cristallo. Fisar in rosa at Casato prime Donne and at Fattoria del Colle with the female sommeliers of the association. Vienna, imperial capital seen from up close. A grape grower goes RAITV and Donatella goes to visit Anna Scafuri. New web site for the estate and the blog is always among the top 15 in Italy.

LA MOGLIE DI COCCIO fairy tales

APRIL

Donatella is a candidate for the Board of directors of Monte dei Paschi but she knows more about wine than bonds!!!! Women’s Vinitaly. In Canada Donatella and Carlo become knights. Dona falls at the Niagara Falls and then Italia a Tavola awards her a prize in Florence, in front of the Ministro Martina. Then the convention in Chieti regarding wine communication: to win there must be less Montepulciano and more Abruzzo. 96/100 from Wine Spectator to our Brunello Prime Donne 2010. In Puglia out to discover the Nero di Troia. Orcia Wine Festival with a great success.

24 December 2015

Tagliatini con i ceci – Christmas recipe

In Siena they call it “minestra di ceci coi tagliolini “ but the true recipe for Christmas Eve are the “tagliatini con i ceci delle Rose” a hamlet that no longer exists

Tagliatini con i ceci delle Rose

By Alice Bracciali Fattoria del Colle

Le Rose was a tiny hamlet of just two houses where two families lived, each with more than twenty members, and it was found between Torrita and Abbadia di Montepulciano, in the Sienese countryside. In the 1920’s it was abandoned and then demolished. One of the two houses belonged to “Lecca”, my great grandfather, and that is where my grandma Franca lived. As a young woman she learned this Christmas recipe.

Tagliatini con i ceci ingredients

“Chi guasta la Vigilia di Natale, corpo di lupo e anima di cane” – “Those who break the Christmas fast, have a wolf’s body and a dog’s soul” my grandma used to say. This was a threat for those who did not follow tradition and forgot to serve at least one dish without meat, always however considered a luxury. This dish is in any case a very tasty one and nourishing at the same time although simple and poor

To serve in the best manner, add a little Extra Virgin olive oil Correggiolo from Fattoria del Colle to each serving

21 December 2015

in Forum: News and lifestyle

The 10 most expensive cognacs in the world

17 December 2015

Vinotherapy trend or true wellness?

The fashionable name and the success of great wines bring us to a question. So let’s go and see what happens to our body and mind with wine treatments

vinotherapy Fattoria del Colle

In the Chianti, Barolo, and Sagrantino regions …. More and more resorts are springing up with wellness areas where the body can regenerate thanks to grape virtues. Obviously the wine’s fame is the driving force, especially when it is known for its ability to better in time as is for Brunello. Fattoria del Colle offers a “Risveglio di-vino” that includes, hammam, gommage with grape dust, wine bath, personalized massage and face mask (130€ per person). A sensorial experience for couples which uses our wines from Montalcino produced in Casato Prime Donne.

Food and wine tourism

BENEFITS FOR THE SKIN

Let’s see what it is and for what vinotherapy is useful, discovering that it is very good for our skin and on the whole for our entire body. As wine does, it has a calming an relaxing effect, grapes help in purifying the body, but also it helps losing weight and moreover to shape the body.

15 December 2015

in Not only wine...

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Wine tours for groups

Wine tours are a new segment of this ever growing segment and generate larger and larger fluxes of tourists visiting wineries. But there are many differences

The large tour operators who sell tours in Italy by bus have now the habit of braking up the itinerary full of museums and shopping sprees with a day to relax in the countryside to slow down. Generally only one winery is visited where a tour, tasting and lunch take place. The wine stop is not necessarily in a very famous wine region but does certainly privilege those near the Venezia-Firenze-Roma motorways. This type of clientele chooses wineries where there are accessory services to wine (restaurant, cookery school, castles, monumental gardens…. ) as well as an offer with a very convenient price. Tour operators sign contracts for many years that foresee the arrival of many groups from March to October.

Other than these groups wineries r receive wine torus that come from hotels and information offices in tourism areas. In this case too they are “tourist by chance” that buy an excursion among the vines in the same way as they would a ticket to an amusement park or to see glass being made in Murano. These are trips that last about 7 hours and that take visitors to a wine city (Montefalco, Barolo, San Gimignano…) and to one or two wineries. Generalized explanations, quick trip, booking on site and an affordable price of 50-100€ per person.

11 December 2015

The oldest and most noble Christmas cake is called Panforte

Pan Forte and Vin Santo Fattoria del Colle

In Siena the Christmas cake that is a must is called Panforte born as peppered bread to give energy it became a noble cake in honour of Queen Margherita

PANES FORTIS

Without panforte Christmas would not be Christmas for Donatella Cinelli Colombini!

The old tradition of this Christmas cake from Siena goes back about a 1000 years . The name PanForte (Panes Fortis) came from the fact that the water in the fruit used to make the cake, kept it soft but at the same time gave origin to moulds which gave and acidic taste to the cake as well.

In 1505 the Panforte began to be a great success thanks Sister Berta, who, worried about the health of the soldiers. She modified the recipe so that is might become energetic for the body and spirit, adding an abundant dose of pepper (Pan Pepato)

During the years the Panforte has not been changed much until 1879 when Queen Margherita di Savoia came to visit the Palio city. Her visit was anticipated by an inspection by her chamberlain who also had the job of choosing the dishes for the “royal palate”. He had a more delicate version prepared for her eliminating the melon and substituting the pepper covering with icing sugar. That is how the Panforte Margherita was born

At Fattoria del Colle the panforte is prepared by the pateisseur and served freshly baked during the Christmas holidays and most of all during the New Years Eve dinner. Hopefully we can soon get back to normal in 2021!

INGREDIENTS FOR PANFORTE

Ingredients Pan Forte Fattoria del Colle

600 g of candied orange and cedar, 300 g of almonds and 200 g of toasted hazelnuts, 200 g of acacia honey, 150 g of sugar, 3 eggs, 100 g of vanilla sugar, 5 dried figs, 150 g of flour, 30 g of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, greaseproof paper and hosts (to be bought in a chemists)

9 December 2015

Donatella Cinelli Colombini presents her Spumante

“Amici di vigna” 4 grape growers from Trentino and Toscana unite to produce a Spumante blanc de blanc that stays 42 months with the yeasts

Spumnate – sparkilng wine- Donatella Cinelli Colombini

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Brunello Montalcino

The project is called “Amici di vigna” – Vineyard Friends. Because it is from the friendship between 4 grape growers, who manage their family activities and with a passion for great wines, that the idea of producing together series of exclusive Spumante comes from.

This Spumante is obtained with Chardonnay grapes grown in Trentino, and has kept with the yeasts in the Gaierhof cellar belonging to Togn Luigi. For the disgorgement Fausto Peratoner took over, he too is a grape grower and wine maker with great experience in Spumante, and, a few years ago was President of the Istituto Trento DOC.

Gaierhof vineyards in Trentino

The two Tuscan members of “Amici di vigna” are the estates Donatella Cinelli Colombini and I Balzini in Barberino Val d’Elsa belonging to Antonella and Vincenzo D’Isanto. Because of the high quality, the accurate and artisanal execution this Spumante fits in well with the ranges of products of the two Tuscan both run with passion and competence by those who really believe in the Vineyard and in small prestigious productions.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini has united in the project her three “Amici di vigna” Luigi Togn, Fausto Peratoner and Antonella D’Isanto and now she is pleased to present this small selection of a great Spumante.

4 December 2015

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Will there be VINE on the earth?

Angelo Gaja tells us his opinion about the effect of global warming in the vineyards. The “Il Corriere vinicolo” summarizes the positions of worldwide experts

Angelo_Gaja

The title is “Ci sarà vite sulla terra?” ( a pun with the word vite that means both vine and life) and in the article one finds a synthesis of the various opinions. Those who own or work in millionaire vineyards tend to deny the effect of the warming to so defend their strong position, while a large slice of the scientific community statesthat the geography of the better territories will change privileging regions that are further North and with more altitude. The replies to climate changes go from empiricism to genetics, but one thing is sure: we cannot lose time and as we cannot change the causes, grape growers must adapt the vineyard by mitigating the climate effects. I am one of the beneficiaries of

Sangiovese vineyard Fattoria del Colle

global warming with Brunello vineyards in the cooler area , this has strongly increase their quality potential thanks to the increase in temperatures but this does not mean that the global problem does not exist.

TROPPO CALDO NEI VIGNETI by Angelo Gaja (november 2015)

The grape growers and the wine producers consider differently the climate that is changing.

1 December 2015

IOsonoDONATELLA

This is the best Brunello that Donatella Cinelli Colombini has ever produced. 600 bottles within a precious attire which tells her story: from being an expert in gold working from the Middle Ages to becoming a wine producer in Montalcino.

Brunello IOsonoDONATELLA Donatella Cinelli Colombini

This Brunello is a dream come true for Donatella Cinelli Colombini, the dream of a winery staffed only by women, Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino, the first in Italy, born as an act of courage and then to become flagship for women in the wine world. Every year an award is organized dedicated to the territory and to women who pave the way towards the future.

But also a dream to produce great wines in a cooler area of Montalcino, where the global warming has given new, great, quality potential. Today the vines planted by Donatella, the experimentation with selected autochthonous yeasts and the trials with barrels for the ageing with different origins and dimensions, all give excellent results.

IOsonoDONATELLA Brunello

Great and some excellent wines, characterized by elegance and harmony. These are exported to 34 nations and destined to a demanding and blue ribbon clientele.

The Brunello IOsonoDONATELLA (I am Donatella) is the result of 18 years of patient work, since 1998, when Donatella received two wineries from her parents: Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda in southern Chianti. Slowly she has transformed them into two excellencies in wine and tourism. Places where authenticity becomes a mixture between a story, high quality and emotions.

25 November 2015

in Uncategorized