Farm experiences

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Colle Piccino becomes Villa Archi

The Colle Piccino farmhouse, after 500 years, becomes Villa Archi: antique furnishings, air conditioning in the rooms, TV, Wi-Fi… but the authenticity remains

Villa Archi Toscana fireplace room

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

178 m2 including a large dining area, kitchen, 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.  Outside there is a private pool, picnic area under the century old oak trees and a park that reaches the Vineyard. Inside the flooring is authentic from farming times, as is the enormous fireplace with niches on the side and the open gallery, but the style is refined and lively with antique furniture, coordinated upholstery and  original paintings.

swimming pool villa Archi Toscana

This is the largest villa at Fattoria del Colle, and the restyling has transformed it into a place for holidays for real Tuscany lovers. Only 200 m away, in the farm hamlet, there are a restaurant, the wellness area, the winery for wine and oil tastings, the cookery school and 3 equipped parks. All this plus the daily activities offered which enrich guests’ stays: brief cookery lessons, tastings, and guided tours also to the winery Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino.

Truffles and wine really are aphrodisiacs!

San Giovanni d’Asso is the third smallest municipality in Tuscany and yet it is one of the top producers in the world of white truffle. Truffle and Orcia wine festival, all for seduction is the motto

Truffle hunting with tourists

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

30° edition of the Mostra Mercato del Tartufo bianco delle Crete Senesi (7-8, 14-15 November 2015) with food stalls and local artisans all  around the medieval castle in San Giovanni d’Asso. Inside the fortifying walls one finds the Museo del tartufo and this is where the market of these delicious truffles. In the surrounding area plenty of truffle preserves, intact natural corners where the dog find the “white nuggets” I have 5 of them at Fattoria del Colle and on Sunday mornings, also during the next weekends(14-15 November and 5-8 December) we organize a truffle hunt for guests staying in our country inn. We will be waiting for you!

Walter Speller in San Giovanni d’Asso

In the occasion of the Mostra del tartufo bianco the wine appellation of this area was celebrated too, Doc Orcia, which launched the first totem apt to distribute brochures. 7 of them will be positioned in car parks, and tourist information offices to distribute 100.000 flyers with a map. A sort of welcome to Orcia, the most beautiful wine in the world, to tourists who arrive here. The alliance between Consorzio and Strada del vino Orcia is beginning to bring results. In the meantime in the fireplace hall in the castle a wine tasting regarding 10 Orcia wines carried out by Walter Speller, one of the major foreign exerts in Italian wines that has recently discovered this appellation and had a pleasant surprise.

Truffles and Orcia wines

Extraordinary new olive oil at Fattoria del Colle

Some advice so as to recognize good quality oil and some news regarding my 2015 extra virgin, mono-cultivar from Moraiolo and Correggiolo olives and the blend

Olives picking at Fattoria del Colle

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

THE TREQUANDA TERRITORY AND ITS GREAT VOCATION FOR OIL

50% of the quality depends on the  “terroir”, 25% on the olive varieties and the method of picking, the remainder  25% is the merit of the olive mill.  Fattoria del Colle is in one of the best areas in Tuscany for extra virgin olive oil. An extraordinary region where thanks to the dry, cools and ventilated climate pesticides have never been necessary.

Trequanda, where our farm is, is distant from the sea and quite high up with an altitude (404 m) to not have problems with the oleic fly; this lays its eggs in the olives and ruins them.

Bruschetta with new olive oil

At Fattoria del Colle this horrible insect has arrived twice in two centuries one of which last year. We were unprepared and unfortunately lost our olives. In 2015 fortunately it has not been so but to be sure eco friendly trap-baits were used for the flies. If they had come we would have caught them. The 2015 olives are well formed and the pulp is consistent and hard.

OLIVE PICKING AT FATTORIA DEL COLLE

No flies and a splendid quantity of olives in the 6 hectares of olive grove. The olive harvest has already begun, slightly sooner than usual so that the warm climate during 2015 autumn do not damage the quality of the harvest.

Wine wedding at Fattoria del Colle

The novelty for 2015 is the bachelorette with an artistic perfumery and erotic cusine. For the wedding couple the bedroom that once belonged to the Grand Duke and vinotherapy for a dream of a honeymoon

Wedding at Fattorisa del Colle – aperitif

Weddings at Fattoria del Colle, in Tuscany, start earlier and finish later: to begin with the bride together with her friends in the magical world of artistic perfumery and with some aphrodisiacal recipes in the kitchen. After, with a honeymoon in the bedroom that was built for the Grand Duke of Tuscany and his lover Isabella and then a relaxing time in the wellness centre with vinotherapy, and couple’s massages.

Wedding in Tuscany fattoria del Colle – lunch

Obviously the “centrepiece” of the party is the ceremony and the wedding banquet (aperitif, lunch and cutting of the cake) with dancing to finish with. A fairytale day that every couple dreams about, and decides upon so that it can be different from all others. Fattoria del Colle is a small authentic hamlet surrounded by vineyards and olive groves. There are large spaces which allow the wedding couple to choose amongst many locations for each moment of the party. Beginning this year the estate is also equipped with two new gazebos to deal with any inconvenience due to bad weather (to be paid for and agreed upon separately).

At the centre of all this the great wines produced at Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and at Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda: Brunello, Chianti superiore and Orcia Doc. The 16^th century villa, the parks with the swimming pools, the restaurant and its panoramic terrace, the apartments furnished with antiques (101 beds) …. These are the authentic frame that gives the wedding a solemn an intimate, refined and simple touch.

In the San Clemente chapel the panoramic points and near the tabernacle in the woods it is possible to set up a suggestive wedding ceremony with altar, music and chairs (to be arranged).

TRUFFLE amore mio! A whole weekend to enjoy it!

31/10 -1/11 And 7-8 / 14-15 November to taste, compare, search for, and cook the white truffle from the countryside that is the most beautiful in the world.

truffle hunting

In southern Tuscany where the panoramas are spectacular and where the Brunello, Chianti and Doc Orcia wines there are also white truffles of exceptional quality and aroma from the Crete Senesi. The heart of this territory is the San Giovanni d’Asso territory with its museum with its precious tuber and the hamlet where, every year, there is a fair for buying and selling the truffles.

Tagliolini alla toscana with white truffle Fattoria del Colle

Fattoria del Colle is 15 km away and includes 5 truffle preserves where tourists will watch the search for the “golden potatoes”. There will also be a brief cookery lesson and dinners with truffles. A full immersion weekend dedicated to this aromatic tuber with mysterious aphrodisiacal virtues, where the pleasures can be completed with some vinotherapy, couples’ massages and a soak in a panoramic Jacuzzi whilst sipping a great red wine.

The apartments and the rooms (antique furnishings with modern comfort) are in the hamlet at Fattoria del Colle all around the 16th century villa and the cellar. A few km away one finds Pienza, Montepulciano, Montalcino, San Quirico d’Orcia, Bagno Vignoni and many other beautiful art cities.

Euro 204,00 per person. It is also possible to book just one day of the program asking for a new estimate when booking. Offers here

3 days in Valdorcia, to discover and rediscover

Today and in a few days time I propose 2 itineraries for those coming for the first time to the area and also for those who already know this territory. I hope to interest you and help you discover more

Bagno Vignoni Orto delle Terme

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

To be guided by those who live here is completely different to an itinerary written by a professional guide because the choice of places is dictated by emotions rather than by their historical or artistic value, for this reason the programme is more intimate and maybe more fun.

To the area included in the Parco della Valdorcia -Castiglion d’Orcia, Montalcino, Pienza, Radicofani and San Quirico – I add the Val d’Asso which historically belonged to the same territory, it is the land of the white truffle and the terracotta, San Giovanni d’Asso and Trequanda where Fattoria del Colle is found.

Piviale Pope Pius II

Today’s itinerary is for those who have been in this area many many times. It stays clear of the cult places, those that are more famous.

You need a camera and comfy shoes because you will be walking a lot. It goes without saying that I suggest sleeping at Fattoria del Colle!