Farm experiences

Going towards the 2014 harvest, hoping in a sunny September

Healthy grapes, slight delay compared to the past few years, harvest foreseen between September 20th and October 5th for Brunello, straight after the picking for  Chianti and Orcia wines

 

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The vines, notoriously intelligent plants, are asking themselves if we are not transforming them in camels. First the vintages 2012 and 2013 that were as dry as a desert, and now a 2014 which, until July, resembled the beginning of the Great Flood. Finally in August the sun arrived, only two storms during the whole month. According to statistics 1,5°C more than the last decade of the 20th century and minus2°C with respect to the average temperatures from the year 2000 onwards. The nights are cool and during the day temperatures range between 28-33°C. Ideal temperatures for the aroma synthesis. The first grape analysis posted by the Consorzio del Brunello regarding clusters picked on August 26th are very positive: the “technological” ripening so the forming of sugar, is still far away, but the evolution of the noble substances in the skins – poliphenols– is ahead.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini a blogger's birthday

Let me tell you about an unusual Donatella Cinelli Colombini on the day of her birthday, habits and virtues of Donatella Cinelli Colombini  in a wine blogger version By Ignazio Anglani [caption id="attachment_9504" align="alignleft" width="283" caption="Donatella Cinelli Colombini, honorary title of Knight of the Repubblic"][/caption] The title is correct, the sub title also, now I will talk about Donatella Cinelli Colombini, but not in her usual role as producer of Brunello, at Casato Prime Donne, as well as Orcia and Chianti Superiore at Fattoria del Colle. I will not talk about her a volcano of ideas: Cantine Aperte-Wine day, Calici di Stelle or...

Easter on the farm, between sacred and profane

At Fattoria del Colle, in the Tuscany of great panoramas, Mass with Gregorian chanting, Brunello wine tasting and lesson on the biscuits called “ossi di morto”.

No worries nothing macabre, ossi di morto (dead man’s bones) are just delicious biscuits made with egg whites and almonds, traditionally from Montalcino and our patisseur Patrizia will teach you how to make them.
Fattoria del Colle is in the middle of the most beautiful and most photographed Tuscan countryside surrounded by some of the most famous cities of art: Pienza the city work of art by Pope Pio II, San Quirico d’Orcia with Bagno Vignoni, sole medieval thermal spa still intact, Montalcino, Buonconvento, Montepulciano, Cortona, Asciano with the splendid Monte Oliveto Maggiore Abbey …
There is so much to see and taste because Fattoria del Colle will organize for its guests an extraordinary wine tasting with 8 Brunello: from 1995 super vintage rated 5 stars up until the last born the 2008 and then the tasting of the 2012 that is still in the barrels, this too a 5 star harvest. Something wonderful that every wine lover would like to do.

The program is complete with themed dinners, guided tours, treks…. All for a really regenerating experience do be done with the whole family, grandparents, children and dogs included. The apartments and rooms at Fattoria del Colle are furnished with traditional antique furniture and transmit warmth and intimacy of authentic things even though bathrooms and central heating are modern. For those who love massages and spas, there is also a small but well equipped wellness centre.
2 night s stay in double room with breakfast 110 € per person
For families: 2 nights stay in apartment 110 € per person for adults, 50€ for each child under 12 years of age. Breakfasts included
The price included all of the activities mentioned in the program except for meals.

What happens to empty barriques?

Creative furniture, flooring with a winey aroma, and chips to give a special touch to your Sunday that’s where the barriques go

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

A barrique’s life is quite short: when it is new it is used for great wines, when it has been used for the third time, so in its third year, it used for the less prestigious wines but when it begins to give the wine a bitter finish, the wine makers see it as a danger, to be removed from the cellar as soon as possible.
It is possible to regenerate it through a scratching and toasting, procedure which in Italy only a few companies know how to do (like our Facebook friend Romiti Pietro). In most cases the barriques end up at the carpenters.
The price is good, between 30 – 50€ for roughly 50 kg of wonderful oak wood but the curving makes the barrel staves not easy to use.

Wine glasses, how to use

Wine goblets: how they are, how many there are, and how to use them at the table. Advice on how to enjoy great wines with right care that they deserve.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini – Fattoria del Colle – Casato Prime Donne

No worries, it’s easier than it seems. First of all wine glasses are goblets so they have a stem and a cup. This permits one to hold them by the stem without dirtying the cup with your fingers. Better not to touch the cup unless the liquid is so cold that it requires “body warming”. To avoid that the cup gets opaque do not wash long after use, don’t leave wine in them all night and be careful how you put them in the dishwasher.
The glass must be perfectly transparent, not coloured, not incised, not engraved but nice and smooth.

The glass must be nice and thin so crystal is to be preferred or new materials of new technology which unite thinness with robustness. The true inconvenience in crystal is, in fact, other than the cost, the fragility, which with the innovative materials is undoubtedly lessen especially in the stem.

The Halloween preparations around the world and at Fattoria del Colle

Pumpkins, masks, witches hats … history and programs of the Halloween celebration adored by children and contested by bishops [caption id="attachment_8527" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="halloween"][/caption] The Catholic authorities would like to abolish it because according to them it evokes the  devil, but in reality it is a way of fighting being scared of the dark, in the winter, and maybe of death and the occult. The word Halloween has a religious root and derives from All-Hallows-Eve so the eve of All Saints in old English. It already existed in the 16th century and has become a recognised and popular festivity inUSA with the typical...

August holiday at Fattoria del Colle

As a family, as a couple, with children and with dogs, in the most beautiful and intact countryside in Italy Fattoria del Colle organizes visits to wineries in the Chianti and Brunello regions, wine and oil tastings, brief cookery lessons, visits to small cities of art and to Siena ….  [caption id="attachment_8234" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Fattoria del Colle country inn in Tuscany"][/caption] Upon request massages and a SPA experience in the Fattoria del Colle specially dedicated area, with a Turkish bath, sauna, Jacuzzi, sensorial showers, relaxation room, a massage rooms. Compete relax or a program rich in activities for a solid in the midst...

I wish to give you a wild flower to put on your table

Platters, tureens, coasters which capture in resin ears of wheat, fruit, and leaves all bring into your home nature. You can find them in the Toscana Lovers shop in Siena

Riccardo Marzi is son and grand son of sculptors, he too has studied art and has worked in several art studios in Florence until he created his own laboratory. He has designed a range of objects made in resin where nature has been “captured”. So you have corn, ears of wheat, leaves, fruit portions all arrive on the table with a touch of nature and class. Class, because the artistic imprinting is present in each of these objects which are all different one from the other and all characterized with extreme compositive elegance. Colourful, unbreakable, lightweight casual and elegant at the same time.