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Fireworks for the Benvenuto Brunello 2013 edition

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

Benvenuto Brunello 2013 new generation producers

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.!-

25 February 2013

in Forum: News and lifestyle

Jancis Robinson magazine gives recognition to the Brunello 2008

Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s Brunello 2008 among the three preferred by Jancis Robinson super taster and obtains 17,5 points out of 20

Jancis Robinson

The European ratings are expressed out of 20 and not out of 100 as is done in the US, plus they are much more rigid so to achieve 16 or 17 is a first rate outcome. So a vast amount of the 230 Brunello tasted by the super taster Walter Speller – a sort of 007 at the service of Her Majesty Jancis Robinson, queen of the wine experts – have reached this excellent result.
Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s Brunello 2008 rates higher with its 17,5 points, third in his podium. This is his description <<Lacklustre mid ruby with orange rim. Sweet and concentrated and quite closed at the same time. Hint of leather. Chewy tannin framing fresh cherry fruit. Muscular and yet not heavy. (WS)>>.
The rating for the Brunello 2008 Prime Donne is wonderful too 16,5/20 and good for the Brunello Riserva 2007 which obtains 16/20.

22 February 2013

in Farm experiences

Recipe for Chicken Mars style: the red planet on your plate

Midsummernight dream. The dish created by Antonio Corsano, chef at Fattoria del Colle, for Calici di Stelle 2012. Foto and text by Bonella Ciacci

Chicken Mars Style - the dish from our chef in Fattoria del Colle

Chicken mars Style from the chef Antonio Corsano at Fattoria del Colle

The dinner organized for the wine event that takes place on the 10th of august was completely dedicated to the stars and included dishes which reproposed old traditions or simbolic ingredients of mid summer rites. The chicken Mars style was inspird by the red planet in its colours and tastes, a balance between sweet and spicy. It is however an unpublished recipe which exalts the Tuscan products such as saffron, Vin Santo and extra virgin olive oil. Once again tradition originates a new dish which is apt for gluttons who are are attentive towards the news food trends.

20 February 2013

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

Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Washington, US Capitol

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.

18 February 2013

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.

Gourmets_preview_Brunello-14

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.

15 February 2013

in Farm experiences

When a present becomes a treasure and a story

Here’s how a towel becomes a unique present, able to tell a story hundreds of years old and to make a bathroom extremely elegant

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

ToscanaLovers-Siena-serviettes-Damas-pattern

ToscanaLovers-Siena-towels-Damas-pattern

Magic? Not at all, we are in the boutique for Tuscan handicraft, where we can find what we need. The shop is in Siena, in the centre of the Palio city, and is called Toscana Lovers. One finds ceramics, cutlery, shawls, embroidered sheets…. and many other objects of great tradition made nearly entirely by hand.

We would like a towel, but not any old towel but something that will remember us to someone dear it and give a touch of class to their bathroom. So here is something unique: these towels are in lines or cotton, made by the wooden looms built in Anghiari two centuries ago during the Napoleonic occupation and still today functional. It is these centenary machines that give the cloth a particular softness, and then of course the designs that recall those visible in Sienese paintings from Medieval times onwards, there is even a towel with the typical rhombus from Pienza and the fringes which recall the one portrayed in the Maestà by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308-11).

13 February 2013

in Forum: News and lifestyle, Vines and wines

Brunello 2008 conquers and surprises New York

Brunello 2008 is liked by the Americans more than they expected. It’s a 4 star vintage but is earning its fifth on the field.

NewYork-preview-Brunello2008

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

500 clients for 41 wineries from Montalcino under the monumental Gotham Hall dome for the first New York toast to the Brunello 2008.

We are in the heart of the Big Apple, in the 19th century branch of a business bank, a sort of modern Pantheon where everything – from the doors to the chandeliers – transmits the opulence of the golden years of America. A location that become a cult for the Batman film and upon entering you really think you see the famous bat fly under the enormous central vault.

The tables for the 41 Brunello producers positioned in a circle around a central buffet with tables for eating on the outside. At midday the assault begins. Really long queues in front of the signing- in desks and an ever growing crowd in front of the producers’ tables, who for 5 hours didn’t have time to go to the restroom. Importers, buyers, journalists and bloggers, restaurateurs, shop owners

Piero_Antinori_NY_tasting_Brunello

….. as if to confirm that Brunello is a star that shines more and more in the first wine market in the world. It is also evident that the 2008 vintage meets with the requirements of the best clientele of the area: it is a “friendly” wine, so much readier and more easily understood than other Montalcino vintages. More importantly it is liked more than everybody expected. It reached here with 4 stars awarded in the harvest rating but is earning its fifth on the field.

11 February 2013

in Uncategorized

Frank Ferrante: the American dream is born from crisis

Frank Ferrante Business lawyer in Manhattan, explains how most of the 500 major American societies were born form the 1929 crisis

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Cristina Vannuzzi Landini interviews the Italo-American lawyer Frank Ferrante, founder of the Studio Legale Ferrante in New York. Born in Calabria, he studied in Italy and then in USA. In his profession he unites the rapidity and dynamics of the American business style together with the care for attention and the flair which are typically Italian.

The Studio Legale Ferrante is a real boutique for Italian clients in New York, there are about 15 experts with an International vocation. He has already opened offices in China and Brazil. The Studio assists in Italy and abroad many clients from real estate, fashion, design, technology, and from wine and food sectors. It offers services relative to 5 micro areas: advisory for start-up business in USA for Italian companies, real estate, immigration, e-commerce and intellectual property (brands/copyrights)

Interview by Cristina Vannuzzi Landini

Q. Avvocato Ferrante “Is small still beautiful?

A. “I am convinced that small is always better, but the time has come to reinvent ourselves. The Italian economic fabric has always been made up of mostly medium and small companies; most of these were in fact family run. The US is one of the largest “friendly” nations for business men, as proven by the World Bank statistics. As long as the “business plan” is solid, the States can offer infinite benefits from a fiscal, corporate, immigration and transparency point of view. I have directly experienced this myself and I try to help the Italian excellencies to experience the so called “American dream”. In a moment of crisis, the worst thing to do is to stay still and wait for it to go away. To look abroad is no longer an option, but a strategy for survival. From this “survival” many have obtained success!”

8 February 2013

in Farm experiences, Vines and wines

Ciancifricola – many names for this Tuscan recipe with tomato

A delicious tomato and egg soup, in the Siena‘s countryside it is also called picchio pacchio. Here you find it in the Fattoria del Colle, farmhouse in Tuscany

Ciancifricola_FattoriaDelColle_ingredients_recipe

Rewritten from the housewives by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

This is a main course for those who get home half an hour before dinner and still are able to put something delicious on the table. In a more refined meal the ciancifricola becomes finger food to be served in small bowls.

It definitely originates from a long time ago even though not quite Medieval. Surely though in the 19^th century the ciancifricola used to be served halfway through the morning, so as to give the farmers some energy, during the heavy summer jobs. In the villages in the Sienese countryside it changes name and becomes pomodorata or picchio pacchio although with some minute variations, the recipe remains the same.

6 February 2013

in Uncategorized

2012 Tourism with spendthrift foreigners especially Russians

Lost 11 million touristic presences in Italy, fewer rooms filled in hotel but there is an increase in spending by non European tourists.

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Tourists_in_Italy

There are few certainties for Italian tourism were the non registered nights seem to be, according to ISTAT, 56%ofte total and in Puglia they would even multiply by 6 the official number. A situation which make any evaluation doubtful and especially makes a credible projection for the future impossible, but Trademark, the major Italian institute for surveys, tries all the same concluding with a situation full of light and shadows.

The first negative element is the amount spent on promotion: summing up all the expenses of all the regions we obtain an amount that is double that invested in Spain, three times as much as what is spent in France and 10 times the USA budget. But if only it were of some use! In fact though it results as being a << conceited exhibition that goes on since 1970 … waist, double expenses, false buyers, false educational trips, mess ups ….>> as they are descried by Aureliano Bonini from Trademark who brings attention to the large number of politic delegations who go abroad.

4 February 2013

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.

1 February 2013

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.

30 January 2013

in Farm experiences

Not only rice for a wedding in a farmhouse in Tuscany

At Fattoria del Colle – country inn in Tuscany – wedding couples from al lover the world and of different religions often choose

Wedding_ fattoria_del_Colle_horn_of_plenty_with_rice

small hearts or bubbles as a wedding wish

At Fattoria del Colle every wedding is different. The location changes as does that of the banquet, the entrees and the cutting of the cake are also different…in other words every couple has a unique experience planned carefully in every detail. Wedding couples of every nationality and religion have different habits and traditions, so the usual throwing of rice after the ceremony becomes something else.

First of all, on the contrary to what happens inItaly, foreign wedding couples come

Wedding_in_Tuscany_Fattoria_del_Colle

out before everyone else form where the marriage has taken place and then they stop to greet relatives.

The moment the couple exits is solemn and usually underlined just like and maybe more than their entrance. For the photographs this is perfect!

It is consequently necessary to organize a space where to stop with a doorway or a staircase for the bouquet throwing.

28 January 2013