In Montalcino, on Saturday, September 19, the Casato Prime Donne Award honours Sandra Misale—a 41-year-old woman born in Calabria who now heads a laboratory bearing her name at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. If patients suffering from pancreatic or colon cancer, melanoma, or leukaemia can today hope for a more effective and less invasive treatment, they owe it in part to her.

The jury of the Casato Prime Donne Award—chaired by Donatella Cinelli Colombini and comprising Rosy Bindi, Anselma Dell’Olio, Anna Pesenti, Stefania Rossini, Anna Scafuri, and Daniela Viglione—selected Francesca Ciancio and Andrea Cuomo as the winners in the journalism categories for promoting Montalcino and its wines. Other awards went to nine young talents in the fields of music, art, jewellery making, and pastry arts.

SANDRA MISALE: PRIMA DONNA 2026

The 2026 theme of the Casato Prime Donne Award—”The Dream Is/and Reality”—comes to life in the story of Sandra Misale. Originally from Palmi on the Calabrian coast, she earned a degree in molecular biotechnology in Turin and subsequently worked at some of the world’s leading cancer research centres, including Harvard Medical School in Boston and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She is currently at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she runs a laboratory bearing her name: the Misale Lab.…

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by Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda, Casato Prime Donne Montalcino

Let us continue sharing the little secrets of Fattoria del Colle that surprise and delight tourists—the details that make a stay there unique, distinctive, and memorable.

The villa’s historic rooms and its chapel house true art masterpieces. The owner, Donatella Cinelli Colombini, is an art historian by background and spent years specializing in medieval goldsmithing. She owns just one piece created by 15th-century Sienese goldsmiths: a copper processional cross. The other artworks are casually interspersed with everyday objects throughout the historic rooms of the villa, where she still resides. Donatella has always lived surrounded by masterpieces; she has no desire to put them on display, preferring simply to enjoy their presence around her. Nevertheless, she is well aware of the risks posed by frequent tourist visits and the threat of theft, which is why Fattoria del Colle is protected by security cameras and alarm systems.

The Hall of Coats of Arms, the billiard room, and the fireplace room retain some of their original furnishings and house many curiosities—such as the list of chickens, brooms, and eggs that each farmstead was required to supply, the alarm bell cord hidden inside the clock, and antique white porcelain from Richard (the company that later became Richard Ginori).…

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by Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda, Casato Prime Donne Montalcino

Almost all the best decisions of my life were made on impulse. Including the decision to get married. Carlo Gardini and I had had a solid relationship for years. He had graduated with honours in Economics and Business, then chosen to join the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, entering a management training program that took him all over Italy to learn about every sector of the business. In 1978, shortly before the August 15^th celebration, Carlo called the personnel department to find out his next posting; he was told that, starting October 1st, he was to begin a nine-month stint in Lille, France.

A DECIDEDLY UNCONVENTIONAL MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

“My parents won’t let me come with you,” I said, thinking of the rigid formality of my own home. “We have to get married.” He hadn’t expected it and remarked, “How am I supposed to tell my parents?” The proposal itself had already been unconventional, but Carlo’s reaction went a step further and made me furious. Fortunately, he quickly pulled himself together, and we began a mad dash to get married and leave together. My mother refused to cancel her work commitments, so we were forced to move the wedding to a weekday.…

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by Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda, Casato Prime Donne Montalcino

Many refer to the twentieth century as the “Short  Century”—a term coined by British historian Eric Hobsbawm—due to the rapid pace of change; yet, in the early 1960s, it felt as though one were living in a nineteenth-century bubble. It was a world precariously balanced between the lingering past, the economic boom that was emptying the countryside, and social rituals that seemed destined to last forever—only to be swept away by the events of 1968.

As a young girl, I used to spend summers in Montalcino playing with the children of the neighbouring farmers, who would run around barefoot. In winter, back in Florence, boys and girls attended separate classes at the Ponte a Mensola elementary school; we girls wore white smocks with pink bows at our collars. Traffic and crime were low, and we children would walk home alone.

THE SIXTIES: BALANCING FORMALITY AND CHANGE

I remember my grandmother Giuliana’s persistence in teaching my brother and me proper table manners, as well as her silver cutlery—which discouraged my classmates from visiting, as they would complain, “It’s so heavy I can’t eat.” This formal propriety wasn’t limited to my home, Montalcino, or Tuscany. I recall traveling to Valence, in Burgundy, when I was seventeen as part of an exchange program organized by the Siena Rotary Club; at my host family’s home, they would dine in formal evening wear.…

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by Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Casato Prime Donne Montalcino, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda

I’m talking about events that occurred about fifty years ago. Federico Fellini often came to my mother’s winery in Montalcino, thanks to our mutual friendship with Mario Guidotti, a journalist and cultural promoter. After the first, more formal visits, Italy’s greatest director began arriving unannounced, like a member of the family.

The problem was that, often, my parents were away, and I had to welcome Fellini alone. I was very young and lived a very bourgeois and decidedly provincial existence between Montalcino and Siena. I was used to meeting intellectuals and famous people because my family had always had that kind of association, but Federico Fellini was decidedly in another league.

That man was a legend, a world-renowned genius with five Academy Awards. His fame was so immense that it would have intimidated people far more skilled than me. I was incredibly nervous in front of him, my hands were sweating, I couldn’t sit still, and above all, I could only say a few polite words, but I didn’t know how to communicate with him; I felt like I had nothing interesting to say. What a shame!

Federico Fellini and his wife Giulietta Masina would come to Tuscany for the beneficial “waters” in Chianciano.…

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By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda, Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino

I’ve known Antonietta Mazzeo for over ten years and have always admired her expertise and thoroughness. These qualities sometimes complicate her life, because like all very sincere people, she also says unpleasant things. The flip side is that everyone can trust her words

In this spirit, I had her taste my 2025 oil, just arrived from the Frantoio di Montalcino mill. Antonietta Mazzeo was in Trequanda to moderate the conferences and lead the tasting panel at the “Festa dell’Olio Novo,” which takes place every year in mid-October. My request stemmed from the desire to evaluate which mill was ideal for our olives, given that we were using three this year. Antonietta told me, “It’s good, very good,” and I decided to return her favour by saying, “Take the bottle home to dress your vegetables.” She smiled happily, “Thank you, I’m really pleased.”

I didn’t expect her to call me a few days later and say, “I did the organoleptic analysis of your oil, can I publish it?” I accepted, and now I’m sharing it with you.

FATTORIA DEL COLLE EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL BY DONATELLA CINELLI COLOMBINI

2025 Olive Oil Campaign

Tasting:  October 20, 2025

Unfiltered Sample

Cultivar: Blend of Moraiolo, Leccino, Frantoio

“…Medium-intense green fruitiness, with a predominance of artichoke and rocket.…

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The winner of the 2024 Casato Prime Donne Award was born in Spain to a family of diplomats but is French by adoption. Maria Canabal speaks 5 languages, a lawyer, has a past as a political, cultural and then gastronomic journalist.

Her first attempt to support women was very difficult, when she tried to write about discrimination in the kitchen she found enormous difficulties.

FROM POLITICAL AND GASTRONOMICAL JOURNALIST TO FOUNDER OF THE PARABERE FORUM

In 2014 the UN launched “He for she”, a solidarity campaign in favour of male-female equality. This is what gave Maria Canabal the urge to create the Parabere Forum the following year. It is a non-profit association aimed at empowering women in hospitality, that is, it seeks to enhance and promote women in the hospitality sector with three tools: education, tutoring and role models. Even the name of the Forum is emblematic: the Marquess of Parabere is a sort of Spanish Artusi who was called Maria Mestayer de Echagüe, was the mother of eight children and owner of two restaurants between Bilbao and Madrid. To write books she had to use a pseudonym because at the time it was difficult for ordinary people to be writers.

WHAT IS THE PARABERE FORUM

Parabere Forum becomes an annual and itinerant event for four hundred women who come from around fifty countries: cooks and scientists, engineers and farmers, anthropologists, wine producers and agronomists who exchange ideas and projects on the future of food.…

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by Donatella Cinelli Colombini #winedestination

Even in agriculture there is an increasingly rapid turnover of personnel within the new logic of building one’s life and professional path. In Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s wineries the dynamics is accelerated by the very high presence of women, with the resulting consequences in relation to the birth of children or the partners’ moves.

Furthermore, but no less important, the reputation of a company that “builds CVs” for the high level of skills required upon entry and for the enrichment of the professional background that can be acquired during work. A circumstance that brings in a huge number of talented young people who, however, do not stay forever

So here we introduce you to the new faces at Casato Prime Donne winery in Montalcino, Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda and the 3 Toscana Lovers stores in Siena, Cortona and Bagno Vignoni.

IRENE LESTI

Since 4 April, Irene Lesti has joined the sales office directed by Violante Gardini Cinelli Colombini. Irene is the export manager and supports Debora Tiezzi who is in charge of the Italian market. Together they also follow the OCM projects and the tastings of the specialized press.

Irene Lesti was born in Montepulciano in 1989, the city where she attended the Socio-Psycho-Pedagogical High School and then continued her studies at the University of Florence in the faculty of “Humanistic Sciences for Communication”, interrupting them before graduating.…

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By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard von Habsburg-Lothringen was born in Vienna in 1847 and became Grand Duke of Tuscany at the age of eighteen in 1865. He left my region in 1890 to become Emperor of Austria and died in Vienna two years later. Her sister Marie Antoinette was the Queen of France guillotined during the revolution and another sister, Maria Carolina, reigned in Naples.

PIETRO LEOPOLDO GREAT SOVEREIGN AND GREAT WOMANIZER

His wife Maria Luisa of Bourbon was the daughter of the King of Spain and bore him 16 children, creating a family that, in the eyes of the Austrians, was too boisterous and disorderly.

The two had married in Innsbruck when Peter Leopold, who was initially destined for  priesthood, had to ascend the grand ducal throne of Tuscany due to the death of his brother Charles. Since he was a child, he showed a particular interest in science and innovations. Inclinations which, arriving in Florence at a very young age, were developed through contact with a group of naturalists and scientists, to the point of making him the prototype of the “enlightened monarch” and of the small state of Tuscany, an avant-garde country. We owe him the fact that Tuscany was the first nation to abolish the death penalty and torture with a new Penal Code, the first to establish a centre for agricultural studies, at the Accademia dei Georgofili.…

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By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Presented at the Pieve di Vitaleta between Pienza and San Quirico d’Orcia, the book by Anastasia Kellermann takes us into her “Tuscan dream” made of flavours and people, fairy-tale places and breath-taking sunsets in what seems to be a land blessed by God for its mysterious harmony between excellence and simplicity, nature and art, lifestyle and work.

VAL D’ORCIA SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF A DUTCH AMERICAN WITH A TUSCAN HEART

The following is the preface I wrote for the book “See Feel Taste Val d’Orcia” and reflects the importance and novelty of this beautiful book of exciting photos and texts.

WHY IT IS DIFFICULT TO WRITE NEW THINGS ABOUT VAL D’ORCIA AND HOW ANASTASIA SUCCEEDED

Val d’Orcia is one of the most talked about agricultural territories and certainly the most photographed in the world. We find the cypress forest of San Quirico, the chapel of Vitaleta and the road to the Foce di Pienza in every calendar, in every advertisement about Tuscany. They are not the only jewels of this part of Tuscany where beauty seems to dominate every panorama. In fact, there are small extraordinary cities of art such as Pienza or Bagno Vignoni but it is the perfect harmony of the agricultural landscape, built by the work of man over the centuries, which has made the Val d’Orcia obtain the inscription as a World Heritage Site of UNESCO in 2004.…

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by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Getting married in Tuscany, among the Chianti and Orcia DOC organic vineyards, in the “most beautiful wine in the world”. In front of the wonderful landscape of the Crete Senesi and Valdorcia. It looks like a movie, but instead it’s reality.

In a 16th century farm that has remained intact over time, with historic gardens, monumental halls, winery and restaurant. Almost a small rural hamlet where the old farmhouses have been transformed into rooms and apartments for tourists (106 beds) and are furnished with authentic antiques that transmit warmth and intimacy.

WEDDING AMONG THE VINEYARDS FOR THOSE WHO LOVE NATURE, HISTORY AND FINE WINES

The wedding at Fattoria del Colle is for those who love nature and fine wines. For those who want  a romantic and Tuscan-style wedding party. For those who want  something elegant and informal at the same time,  where everyone is comfortable.

For those who love the taste of typical cuisine but also refined things and then want to dance, go wild or let themselves be lulled by the magic of summer nights in the countryside ….
In the summer of 2022 some midweek dates are still available while the 2023 calendar is almost entirely empty. Obviously the weddings organized from Monday to Thursday have the advantage of a lower cost (10% or more off both the party and overnight stays).…

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