Farm experiences

Wine and beauty at Fattoria del Colle

From October at Fattoria del Colle the bathtub for couple vinotherapy increases our wellness offer. Massages wine tastings and lots more so as to regenerate body and mind with Brunello and Chianti. [caption id="attachment_9610" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="  Fattoria del Colle Vinotherapy"][/caption] It all begins with the internationally famous wines by Donatella Cinelli Colombini: Brunello from Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and the Chianti Superiore and DOC Orcia wines from Fattoria del Colle. It is exactly from these wines that our beauty and wellness offer begins, to which we add tours of the wineries, wine tastings, lunches, and stays among the vines for singles but...

The Brunello sky with Sandra Savaglio’s stars

The Casato Prime Donne award 2014 is full of stars: Sandra Savaglio, Daniele Cernilli, Ian D’Agata, Anna Di Martino and Andrea Rontini

Sandra-Savaglio-Cenerentola

September 14th in Montalcino Casato Prime Donne award in a star filled edition: the stars belonging to the astrophysicist Sandra Savaglio, the moon photographed by Andrea Rontini and the three stars from wine journalism Anna Di Martino, Daniele Cernilli, Ian D’Agata and then “Vita” the grape-picker who is looking at the sun by Piero Sbarluzzi.
This award for the past sixteen years has transformed Montalcino into a stage for great women, those who change the feminine profile, it proposes this year a positive example for the world of research: Sandra Savaglio the astrophysicist who has decided to return to Italy to the Università della Calabria in Cosenza after 23 years of working abroad with the best foreign telescopes and after having become the icon of the participants of the brain drain. In fact in 2004 the weekly “Time” magazine put her on the front page with the title “How Europe lost its science stars”.

Do you trust TripAdvisor?

Federalberghi attacks TripAdvisor, pointing out the reviews for 2013 and 2014 for a hotel shut in 2007 and not only 

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By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Are reviews on web portals true? This doubt has been around for several years and has recently been confirmed by an American research centre called Gartner, where they have discovered that 10-14 % of opinions published by TripAdvisor are false. These circumstances have convinced the Antitrust to open a case – after Expedia and Booking – also for TripAdvisor, with the hypothesis that they don’t do enough to avoid inaccurate reviews.

Some of the positive reviews come from the managers of hotels and restaurants who want to climb higher in the ratings, on the other side, regarding criticism, there are vindictive actions from clients to whom certain complaints had been made, breakages, noise, hidden consumptions…. It goes without saying that the great influence of TripAdvisor on the choices for holidays pushes some towards an incorrect use, and so the managers of the portal must check better.

Wine day during the harvest with Donatella Cinelli Colombini

3 weekends at Fattoria del Colle when you can live and relive the experience and unique atmosphere of the haverst among Brunello and Chianti vineyards

20-21 / 27-28 september

4-5 october*

On the 20th of september, a little later then expected, Donatella Cinelli Colombini‘s

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wineries will give the go to the harvest! The grapes are almost fully ripen and totally healthy, so it appears to be a good year. Let’s hope for a great harvest! Fattoria del Colle proposes, for the occasion, a brand new offer for stays and activities all dedicated to the harvest. Come and experience the emotions and the unique atmosphere  to the grape harvest in southern Chianti to discover how the great red Tuscan wines like Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti are born and the secrets hidden behind these bottles. All of this happens while immersed in the surroundings of a  16th century estate where apartments have been created from the old farmhouses. This is not just a trip back in time but a fun day in the vineyard and in the cellar with guided technical tastings by expert staff, and dinners with typical dishes from the Crete Senesi and Val d’ Orcia areas.

In October the program will be enriched with a Vinotherapy program in our wellness centre at Fattoria del Colle

To conclude the trip we suggest a visit to the cities of art close by such as Pienza and Montepulciano, Cortona and San Quirico-Bagno Vignoni, or to continue you “divine “weekend in  Montalcino.

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

Harvest-2014-August-Sangiovese-at-Fattoria-del-Colle

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”.

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.

Easter at -Fattoria-del-Colle

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.

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

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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...