Blog

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

What are you talking about Soldera?

Soldera’s accusations towards the Consorzio and its Brunello producers published in “Corriere della Sera” are fantasy and can do a lot of damage

View of Montalcino

The nastiest thing is the accusing the Consorzio of having <<proposed a fraud, offering wine from others to be bottled as his own>>. This is ridiculous, the producers wanted to give him part of their production to help him in a difficult moment, creating a “Brunello della solidarietà” a Solidary Brunello and this is his reply? Is he not ashamed?

He creates doubts, talks of mysteries, when the only mystery is how miraculously barrel sand barrels of his precious Brunello have suddenly reappeared. At least 350 Hl it seems, not a demijohn ….at least 5 barrels for 50Hl, as the “Corriere della Sera” talks of 7.000 bottles per year. But hadn’t the vandalic act destroyed all of his wine? Are we maybe at the wedding at Cana?
Soldera accuses the Consorzio because it does not invest in the studies of control systems regarding the pureness of the Sangiovese for Brunello, but that is not true! The Consorzio has invested about 150.000 € in these studies, entrusting the to the major wine research centre in Italy, the one found in San Michele all’Adige. The researchers, directed by Prof. Mattivi have discovered a method of investigation and the Consorzio will present it during the next convention.