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94/100 in Wine Spectator for Donatella’s Brunello Riserva 2007

1 May 2013

in Uncategorized

Women teach how to sell Italian wine in China

Lady importers, journalists, managers, these can tell us about the future of Italian wines in China: lots of problems and certainty, e-commerce

Female wine managers all together

Stevie Kim, managing director of Vinitaly International, placed around a table 4 lady importers, two lady journalists, and the lady author of the study regarding the trend of wine imported into China.
8 women who are opinion makers in their own nations. This took place in Shanghai and the results were very interesting. According to them Italian wine must use the web to get into the Chinese market.

Linda Wu (journalist for vinehoo.com), Joanne Jiang (general manager Cuve International Trade), Lu Zhang (general manager Innex China), Sophie Liu (author, journalist, wine critic), Emma Tang (marketing manager Iking winery), Cin Xu (importer for Shanghai Chuxiao Trade).

29 April 2013

in Farm experiences

Let me introduce you to Michela the new chef at Fattoria del Colle

Michela Amori is a 36 year old brunette, with a lovely face and lissom movements. In the kitchen she is fierce, she is competent, refined, and has great imagination.

Michela the new chef for Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Donatella Cinelli Colombini new chef

What she loves most is fresh pasta. When she was a child she used to go and sat with her grandmother, who was cook for a very important Roman journalist. Every Monday morning they would roll out the pasta together, and even today when she makes fresh pasta following her grandmother’s teachings, Michela thinks of her. In fact when she is alone, Michela likes to eat pasta with a revisited Carbonara dressing which she invented herself, starting with the cinta senese “gotino” (meat from the cheek) and the onions from Certaldo.

If this is her professional sweetest memory, then her worst one is the dinner for the “prova generale” for the Contrada del Drago with 650 people seated and 3 people in the kitchen to help her. A nightmare.

26 April 2013

in Farm experiences

No tripe left for the cats – Tuscan recipe

This recipe from Buonconvento, a village on the road that connects Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino (10 km) and Fattoria del Colle di Trequanda (25km)

Recipe coming from Tuscany with tripe

This comes from a small booklet hand written by housewives, where all the domestic knowledge learnt from their grandmothers is recorded. The recipes are easy, quick and very tasty.

Buonconvento is along the Roman Via which in Medieval times became the Via Francigena. It was a fortified village with spectacular wall where one stopped, for armies, merchants, pilgrims and even kings. In 1313 the Imperatore Arrigo VII died here, and, according to the legend, he was poisoned in the convent with a consecrated host from here the saying <<Buonconvento e cattivi frati>> ( Good convent bad friars) which has pursued the Buonconvento inhabitants– buonconventini, also called granocchiai or nebbiaioli – to this day and age

Ingredients for the tripe

Boiled mixed tripe, grated rind of half a lemon, an onion, pureed peeled tomatoes, grated Parmigiano, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

24 April 2013

in Uncategorized

For women wine is not for home

Karen Casagrande

The fair sex prefer an aperitif out of the home (67%) while men are more stay-at-home (47%) this distinguishes wine consumption between men and women.

The survey carried out during Vinitaly 2013 on a 3.000 visitors of the fair, portrays the different attitudes between male and female wine lovers. 44% of men are habitual drinkers and do so at home, while women prefer a less frequent consumption ( 42% drink wine 3 volte a week) and out of the home.

The frequency of wine consumption growth with age and both genders concentrate their drinking during the weekend (75%). Women especially like to taste a nice glass of wine as an aperitif, for dinner, or even after dinner but in more convivial situations.

22 April 2013

Sanchimento a Tuscan Traminer that will surprise you

The 2012 harvest will be remembered as one of the best regarding its quality and as one of the scarcest regarding the quantity.

IGT 2012 Sanchimento

Very few clusters of grapes. For this reason even the IGT Sanchimento has been produced in small amount and is reserved for the most affectionate clients.
In 2012 the vintage has seen great excesses in the climate. Great snowfalls, with one and a half metres of snow at Fattoria del Colle, the farmhouse of Donatella Cinelli Colombini, which caused nearly a months transport paralysis. Three moths of extreme heat without a cloud or drop of rain between June and September. In other words the vines were really put to the test. The surprise was their reaction: they proved to be “intelligent plants2 solving by themselves the majority of problems. They reduced their vitality and so produced less grapes and then “abandoned” part of it which remained green after the veraison and these were then removed when the thinning out took place. The grape growers also had an essential role, hoeing, removing the excess grapes, managing the green leaves with a work –intensive commitment without precedent and in the end their work was repaid with the awarding of 5 stars to the 2012 vintage, one of the best in the last 100 years.

19 April 2013

Onions soup (zuppa di cipolle) from Isabella

Isabella Monguzzi has a wine store in Milano called Vincanto but her real passion is coking. She gifts us with her secret onion soup recipe

Onion soup and Rosa di Tetto IGT

Cooking in your home kitchen, if done cleverly, can reach excellent levels with poor ingredients and a little time at your disposal.

This soup is a perfect example; it is a dish fit for a king but it takes less than one hour to prepare. It must be matched with an important white or rosé wine such as the IGT Sanchimento and Rosa di Tetto 2012 from Fattoria del Colle, which are intense, and rich in aroma.

Two words regarding Isabella Monguzzi, she is a young woman full of courage who has succeeded in reinventing herself starting from her passion for wine. She hates things that are commonplace and she is constantly dedicated to finding labels still undiscovered, in fact quite a wine talent scout with great nose and imaginativeness. Go to Vincanto, she will surprise you.

17 April 2013

in Uncategorized

These are the “Most Admired Wine Brands” in the world

On the podium Concha y Toro, Torres and Penfolds which means Chile, Spain and Australia, the first of Italians is Antinori in 32nd position

Concha y Toro - Barrio

This is the list of top brands in the wine world, as per “Drinks International”, the English magazine that periodically publishes lists of the wineries and the people that count. In reading we can be aided by Wine News’s acute comments.
Here are the winners: first, for the third consecutive year Concha y Toro from Chile with its 20 million cases. Followed by the colossal Spanish wine producer Torres. Bronze medal for Penfolds, those that produce the most famous Shiraz in the world, part of the Australian Treasury Wine Estates.
The French shine, but not too much, with Michel Chapoutier in fourth position and the LVMH group in sixth. This is surprising mostly because of the super power of the multinational luxury corporation belonging to Bernard Arnault, who boasts an income of 23 billion Euros and seems to have the intention of becoming the monopoly of the Champagne labels that count. It is surprising also because in 5th position is Cloudy Bay, a brand with wines which can also be affordable and who has the merit of having spread around the world the distinctive stile of the wine New Zealand wines Evidently it is this that creates admiration rather than luxury, in fact the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti are in 10th position.

15 April 2013

in Uncategorized

The super wineries in Italy and in the world

The winery that in Italy sells most is Giv – Cantine Riunite, but it’s Cavit that exports the most and the one that earns most is Sassicaia.

The new Antinori winery

Vinitaly is the time for wine ratings and figures, the two most important ones are by Mediobanca and by Anna Di Martino for “Il Mondo”. Many confirmations but also some surprises: we discover that the great Italian wineries increase their sales regardless of the crisis, in the wine sector that is healthier than the rest of the Italian economy, thanks to a decidedly brilliant export plan. Among the 15 wineries with the highest percentage of exportation in the world, four are Italians: Cavit is in the absolute 2nd position, then Antinori, Giv- Cantine Riunite and Caviro.

13 April 2013

Cardoons in the Val d’Orcia style

The most frequent recipe in Val d’Orcia is the winter one for cardoons, even though in Montalcinowe use the same recipe for celery which we eat

Leone Rosso Orcia DOC with "gobbi rifatti" recipe

Gobbi rifatti Tuscan recipe and Leone Rosso DOC Orcia

in August

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Cardoons are among the tastiest and most refined vegetables that can be found. The term “gobbo” is used mainly in Tuscany while in Veneto it becomes “cardo” and in Nizza Monferrato “cardo-gobbo”. This is a wild artichoke, beautiful to see, in fact its leaves and flowers dominate the damasks , brocades and two pile velvets from the 17th and 18th century.

10 April 2013

All about Vinitaly

The hopeful expressions and the work carried out by the wine makers during the largest Italian wine fair. The courageous proposals by Veronafiere for Asia.

Carlo Gardini and Violante

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

What is amazing is the lack of enormous traffic jams we were used to in the past, even though the Vinitaly pavilions were overflowing with people even more than usual. One was even scared to take an escalator in case it was not possible to get off again.

What most explains peoples desire to work hard is the type of shoes worn: no heels, and lots of walking shoes, a proclamation saying “no one is going to stop us!” In the Donne del Vino restaurant, on the first day of the fair, they continued serving lunches until 5pm, as there was such a crowd.

10 April 2013

in Uncategorized

Goodbye Franco Biondi Santi

8 April 2013

in Uncategorized

BBC News explains why the French drink less wine

The BBC comments the decrease in wine consumption in France and proposes wine a san instrument for the ”art de vivre” but also as an antidepressant

Wine in France

On march 26th Hugh Schofield, BBC correspondent from France, has published an article titled << Why are the French drinking less wine?>> where he explains that in the nation where wine is a sort of National emblem the habitual consumers have decreased from 50% to 17% of the population in just over thirty years while the consumption per person has decreased from 160 litres in 1965 to the present day 30. It’s not as though in Italy things are going better, in fact here and in Spain, during the last twenty years the rapid decrease has touched minus 34%.

4 April 2013

in Uncategorized