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.…

L'articolo FEDERICO FELLINI AND DONATELLA sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

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.…

L'articolo ANTONIETTA MAZZEO AND DONATELLA’S EVO OIL sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

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

The 2025 “Global Wine Tourism Report” has been commissioned by top-level clients, including the UN Tourism Organization, the OIV – International Organization of Vine and Wine, the Great Wine Capitals Global Network (GWC), and WineTourism.com. The scope is also vast, encompassing the entire world, with 1,310 wineries interviewed in 47 countries, but with a particular focus on Europe, which accounts for 70% of the sample, with Italy in a dominant position (17%).

PERHAPS TOO MANY EXPECTATIONS FOR THE WINE TOURISM BUSINESS

Wineries are showing strong interest worldwide: two out of three wineries report that wine tourism is profitable or very profitable. This type of  tourism generates approximately a quarter of their total revenues. This percentage is likely higher in North America and smaller in Europe.

Confirming the expectations of all wine companies regarding wine tourism, it’s worth noting that half of the sample intends to invest, and the majority expects growth in both fluxes and business. Indeed, there’s a widespread belief that this type of  tourism is countercyclical, or at least more resilient, and therefore capable of boosting sales in times of crisis.

Among Europeans, there’s greater reluctance to develop wine tourism. 57% of wineries not open to the public attribute this to a lack of staff, while among non-European wineries, the percentage drops to 30%.…

L'articolo WINE TOURISM IN WINERIES AROUND THE WORLD sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

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.…

L'articolo MARIA CANABAL THE PASIONARIA FOR WOMEN, WINE AND FOOD sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

<<Take a smile, give it to those who have never had it.

Take a ray of sunshine, make it fly where the night reigns.

Discover a spring, let those who live in the mud get wet.

Take a tear, pass it on the face of someone who has never cried.

Take courage put it in the soul of those who can’t fight.

Discover life, tell it to those who don’t know how to understand it.

Take hope and live in its light.

Take the goodness and give it to those who cannot give.

Discover love and make it known to the world>>

MAHATMA GANDHI

Happy Easter

Donatella, Carlo, Violante, Enrico, Lorenzo and all of us of Fattoria del Colle and Casato Prime Donne.…

L'articolo Happy Easter sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

We all, in every day of our lives, have the opportunity to create a little piece of the world’s hope. Let’s try learning from St. Francis <<Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible. And suddenly you’ll find yourself doing the impossible>>.

This is my wish for Christmas.
With all my love,

Donatella just became grandmother of Lorenzo

 …

L'articolo Merry Christmas sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Violante has had a perfect pregnancy to the point of going to fairs and traveling until the sixth month. There was only a slight delay in the growth of the baby’s abdominal circumference which normalized during their holidays in Gozo-Malta thanks to the sun and the affection of friends.

BUSINESS TRIPS AND WINE FAIRS DURING THE PREGNANCY FOR VIOLANTE

During Vinitaly I still did not know about the pregnancy and I did not understand Enrico’s concern for Violante‘s severe cold. Only later did I realize that working the whole fair and even dismantling the stand for Violante was a bit risky.

After all, Violante travelled a lot during her pregnancy. At the very beginning she went with her husband to Dubai to recover on the honeymoon that hadn’t happened after the wedding due to Covid. But nothing stops the intrepid Vio! Just after returning from a trip abroad, the future parents showed Carlo and me an ultrasound scan announcing the baby’s arrival.

Here in Tuscany, maternity benefits from a formidable regional project with blood tests, gynaecological visits, a course for parents and even a centre for natural childbirth. It’s called Margherita and only those who have a perfect pregnancy can access it. Obviously Violante wanted to give birth there.

LORENZO AS IN THE MAGNIFICENT, WISHING HIM A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE

He weighs 3,400 kg, which is much more than the forecast, for which the size 00 onesies that Violante had prepared and which, for the most part, are hers as a baby girl, they do not fit him.…

L'articolo WELCOME LORENZO sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Communicators, goldsmiths, pastry chefs, language and agriculture students under 30 years of age will be involved in the Casato Prime Donne Award by carrying out training experiences, receiving visibility or stimuli capable of motivating them and opening up new professional and human horizons for them.
The project includes collaborations with the University of Siena – Department of Communication Sciences and with two Sienese schools. At the same time, two small competitions are held for the selection of the best young talents in the goldsmith and pastry fields.

SELECTION OF THE BEST YOUNG PASTRY CHEF FROM TUSCANY

The best young pastry chef will be chosen by a jury composed of the gastronomy journalist Marzia Morganti, Helle Poulsen Tesio, author of 16 books on Italian cuisine and the chef Doriana Marchi from Fattoria del Colle. To compete, you must be under 30 years of age and have been residing in Tuscany for at least 5 years. You need to create a new cake dedicated to women and send the photo of the cake with the recipe (without the doses of the ingredients) to info@cinellicolombini.it by May 30^th  along with some biographical notes. The chosen pastry chef will make the cake (or the cakes) for 80 people which will be served in the occasion of the award giving  ceremony on September 17th.…

L'articolo Casato Prime Donne Award incubator of TOP young talents sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

In Montalcino, long ago, it was possible to buy these only during the 40 days Easter. Only bakeries sold them, and with their vans they delivered all over the countryside. Even further back the farmer’s wives would bake them in the wood fire, placing them in the oven after everything else had been cooked, so the temperature was much lower.

The Corolli are doughnut shaped buns to be dunked in milk at breakfast timer. They are not very sweet so I always thought that they were “repentance” quite the opposite of the tasty cakes and desserts for carnival time or the rich Ricciarelli and Panforte for Christmas time.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE COROLLI DI MONTALCINO

A teaspoon of beer yeast, 600 g of flour, 100 g of sugar,60 g of butter, 250 g of sultanas, a pinch of aniseed, 5 g of salt, a few  Zibibbo berries

PREPARATION OF THE COROLLI DI MONTALCINO

Blend the yeast with 100g of flour and a little warm water. Leave the dough to rest for about half an hour until it begins to rise. Knead it again using the rest of the flour and adding 250g of water and all the other ingredients: sugar, butter (long ago it would have been lard), sultanas, aniseed and salt. As soon as the dough is nice and smooth leave it to rest for 30 minutes until it begins to rise again.…

L'articolo Corolli di Montalcino for Lent sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Di Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The ranking 50 Top Italy with the best 50 Italian restaurants in the world is available online and is the first result of the LSDM project (historical congress of kitchen author that takes place in Paestum) curated by its creators, Barbara Guerra and Albert Sapere, along with the journalist Luciano Pignataro.

50 TOP ITALY BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANTS IN THE WORLD

The initiative turns the spotlight on Italian haute cuisine everywhere in the world highlights its worldwide spread, in fact Europe excels with 18 names, but does not dominate the scene. North America has 16 restaurants in the rankings, (14 in the United States and 2 in Canada) Asia 10, Latin America 3, Australia 1, 1 in South Africa and 1 in the Arab Emirates.

NEW YORK THE CITY WHERE ITALIAN FOOD IS BETTER

The flagship city of Made in Italy cuisine is New York with 7 restaurants followed by Paris and Hong Kong with 4 and Geneva with 3.

Here are the great metropolis of the world, with their huge riches and their sophisticated lifestyle, become the best stage for talents like the Roman Giovanni Passerini in his Paris club, Alfonso Iaccarino in Toronto, or Mario Gamba (fourth among the best Italian restaurants in the world) with his Acquarello  of Munich or even Umberto Bombana arrived fifth with 8 ½ Bombana of Hong Kong.…

L'articolo The best Italian restaurants in the world sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Brunello, Casato Prime Donne

Many start working in wine by changing a passion into a profession but everybody ought to know that before the shiny world of parties, elegant clothes, travels and starred meals, there really is a lot of hard work.

The Drinks Business has tried to list the 10 best wine professions, here I summarize just a few notes, but the article is great fun and I suggest you read it. As you will note among the 10 top professions “wine producer”does not appear, those who grow grapes and transform them into wine to sell it. Maybe this is the hardest job, but in my opinion, the best.

BUYER Spends most of his time in front of the computer, checking stocks and sales, marketing plans and emails. But he does travel and gets to know wine regions and gets to taste a lot too. The best thing about this job is the possibility to get to know many wine areas and many producers.

WINE MAKER – WINERY DIRECTOR Hard job but also fascinating and is always different because every harvest is a new story. To be successful you need to travel and work in other nations.

EVENT ORGANIZER Apt only for those who can handle  stress well.…

L'articolo The 10 best jobs in wine sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

The rampant lion is engraved at the entrances at Fattoria del Colle , on the ceilings, and on the majolica blazons it is an evident presence and symbol of the long history of this place. It is the emblem of the Socini, or Soccini family, Donatella ancestors who built Fattoria del Colle in 1592. The Socini was a Sienese family of jurists and thinkers, that were rich and prestigious until, Lelio (1525-1562) and Fausto (1539-1604) Socino became important characters in the protestant reform and most of all very much opponents of the dogma of trinity. Still today their names are written in every book on philosophy, but by the church they were considered heretics and so they were forced to escape abroad and brought their family to ruin. In 1919 Donatella’s great-grandfather Livio Socini bought Fattoria del Colle back, quite by chance. Donatella got the estate fro her dad Fausto Cinelli in 1998 and has dedicated to the Socini family the wine she has produced there, “Leone Rosso” DOC Orcia.

THE  DOC ORCIA WINE REGION

The appellation ORCIA was born in the year 2000 in Southern Tuscany, in a vast hilly region that reaches as far as the Crete Senesi going towards Monte Amiata. An area that includes 12 villages, where once the spring frosts damaged the vines one year out of three, and consequently discouraging wine production.…

L'articolo My red lion (Leone Rosso) that has been roaring for 400 years sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

2015 is a 5 star harvest, 2015 is a lucky year because the vineyards remained miraculously unharmed while all around all sort of things were going wrong: in Torrita hailstones as large as tangerines, water bobs flooding the nearby Buonconvento. But in the vineyards small perfect clusters were ripening, more beautiful than we had seen for a long time.

THE NAME

The Il Drago e le 8 Colombe symbolizes the 8 women who work in the winery at Fattoria del Colle –together with Casato Prime Donne in  Montalcino these are the first in Italy with an all female staff- and the only man who can influence the productive choices : Carlo Gardini, husband to Donatella Cinelli Colombini the owner.

THE SECRET

The Il Drago e le 8 Colombe is a Supertuscan, which means it does not belong to any DOC appellation but is a “masterpiece” wine, a small production  born for the creativity and wine making passion that’s has enabled Donatella Cinelli Colombini to experiment in Trequanda with Sagrantino, variety from the nearby Umbria.

The Sangiovese, Merlot, and Sagrantino grapes used to produce this wine are born in Fattoria del Colle. They are cultivated following the organic regime with great manual care. Harvesting is also done by hand, at different times: firs the Merlot, then the Sangiovese and the Sagrantino for last.…

L'articolo Il Drago e le 8 Colombe is a masterpiece wine sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Toscana, agriturismo, Fattoria del Colle

The list of golden hobs, the richest Italian chefs , published by Dissapore and by Corriere della Sera, subsequently commented by Cronache di gusto, leaves us speechless for the volume of business that rotates around these prized chefs, the most famous the most seen on tv. Enormous amounts of money. Her is the list proposed by Corriere della Sera

Carea Family Ristorante Da Vittorio in Brusaporto 15.461.865

Alajmo Brothers 11.256.635€

Antonio Carnavacciuolo 5.381.566€

Massimo Bottura dell’Osteria Francescana 4.896.627€

Niko Romito 3.742.001 €

Carlo Gracco 3.530.712 €

Enrico Bartolini 2.771.041 €

Moreno Cedroni 2.612.028

Joseph Bastianich 2.115.645 €

Gualtiero Marchesi 2.113.800 €

All very good, all working in spectacular kitchens, but also with accessory activities that are very remunerative: TV programs, cooking classes, presentations, publicity… Very diverse activities that often include vineyards, or food productions labeled with their own brand or even real international empires. The Bastianich family for example. The US magazine Celebritynetworth has done some research into  Master Chef’s judge and estimates his International business as around  250 million Dollars. Much more than his mother, the very clever Lidia Bastianich, and Istria refugee who started with a New York restaurant Felidia and the created around 20 different activities, TV programs, recipe books, and even foodstuffs with her own brand, and of course the participation in Eataly USA.…

L'articolo Millionaire chefs, here are Italy’s richest sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Doc Orcia, Fattoria del Colle

The image of a world divided between rich and poor is evident even in the quantity of work that is needed to buy a luxury product such as  Moët & Chandon: in nations that are more economically developed it is affordable by the a vast majority of the middle class and in places like  Kenya, Ghana or India practically nobody can afford it.

The analysis of the work to be done to become owners of a bottle of these noble French bubbles arrives from JWE Journal of Wine Economics, a periodical magazine that, together with very interesting studies regarding the cost of production (in the last number they were talking about the incidence costs of barriques), solicits the wine world with research of socio- economic character and regarding scenario..

It is like the case of the list that I saw on the web, together with the index of the last number. It lists 71 nations for which the average salary has been compared with the price of a bottle of Champagne Moët & Chandon. So we see that in Luxemburg Switzerland and New York an hour’s work is enough.  In Italy about three hours work and the percentage increases to more than a day in Poland, Argentina, and Croatia, to reach a week of labour in the Philippines or in Ukraine.…

L'articolo Richness and poverty in front of Moet et Chandon sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Montalcino, Brunello, Casato Prime Donne

Thoes who haven’t got a blazon might run to an expert and get one created for their name or their winery. In fact the charm that binds nobility and history, that mixture of mystery and richness that a coat of arms signifies, is still very strong and  so a crest helps sell wine. So this has its effect and not only on the simplest of people who think of the Prince Charming who lives in a castle with its drawbridge, but also on those with a degree and great salary. The noble coat of arms gives a bottle great prestige.

This is the surprising revelation of the second survey Spot & Web carried out with the WOA method (Web Opinion Analysis) through monitoring the most important social media networks and on a sample of 500 people between 25 and 60 years of age, analyzed by a pool of psychologists coordinated by the psychologist Serenella Salomoni.

So here is what influences the consumer: the blazon (26%), the name (22%), the image of the place of origin (17%), the label (14%) and the bottle (11%).

Without of course diminishing the value of the quality of the wine, of the appellation or of the brand, this survey has evidenced how important it is to show off the aristocracy of the producer and of the castle, villa or monumental building where the wine is produced.…

L'articolo A crest helps sell wine sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Within June 15th articles or photographs regarding the wine territories Brunello and Orcia must be sent to the award secretariat to participate in the 19^th edition of this event. This award year after year grows in visibility and appreciation. It has the goal of expressing gratitude from the territory towards those who promote its culture and the wine productions but most of all its scope is to emphasize women who propose new models of femininity. During the years the Casato Prime Donne award has anticipated times by giving recognition to special women, not yet well known, who later have done memorable things such as Samantha Cristoforetti who 4 years after receiving the award went into space. Or it has emphasized the civil courage of a great astrophysicist who came back from abroad to teach in an Italian University – Sandra Savaglio – or like the young Muslim who opposes terrorism by risking her own life – Chaimaa Fatihi. The Casato Prime Donne puts a spot light on a new way of being woman in a society that is changing and asks the female gender for a contribution in courage, ethics ad positive examples.

The jury made up of Donatella Cinelli Colombini

president, Rosy Bindi, Anselma Dell’Olio, Anna Pesenti, Stefania Rossini, Anna Scafuri and Daniela Viglione represents in its compound character and in its multidisciplinary competences an privileged observation of the present society and has been able to give substance and messages to the Casato Prime Donne award making it a great instrument for social and territorial promotion.…

L'articolo Casato Prime Donne Award 2017 sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Chianti Superiore, Agriturismo, Fattoria del Colle

British Fizz …..  sounds awful and make you think of fizzy hair. Then there are the FIZZ drinks, blended with lemon and soda. We all know Gin Fizz

So after thinking about this for a long time the sparkling wine producers could have chosen a name to give dignity to the bottle instead of a name used previously for the effervescence of soda.

Mamma mia, and to think that the English bubbles are very expensive.  Fizz what?

Not very convincing, in fact I would say the opposite of any marketing logic, it the way that the term has been chosen. This story is told in a nice article on The Drinks Business. It seems that it all started with the wine list at the Jones Wood pub in New York, this was photographed and posted on Twitter on the 5^th of January. The list itemized 6 British Fizz followed by 11 Champagne and sparkling wines among which a Lambrusco. After this incident Bob Lindo chairman of the British association of producers UKVA declare to want to register the name FIZZ so that it becomes the name of the English appellation of sparkling wines produced with the metodo classico. In fact the project is fuller one as there would be then 3 English DOP regions:

British Fizz
British Sparkling
Wine from Great Britain. …

L'articolo British Fizz: Her Majesty's Spumate sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Orcia Doc, Fattoria del Colle

Social Vignerons the blog by Julien is one of the most influent the world over and his followers are worthy of the quality of his articles: 254.825 on Twitter, 14.445 son Facebook, 40.058 on  Instagram, 7.334 on LinkedIn … practically all of those who love reading about wine online.

The posts that are published by this French winemaker, who turned to the web while in New Zealand, to then return to Europe last year, are always very interesting.  The article << Women and Wine? Let’s shrug off dusty clichés!>>  is to be framed. Read it and then continue scouring his blog because Social Vignerons will fascinate you.

So let us see which are these myths to be exposed regarding wines and women that Julien Miguel re-proposes from the graph by Feminalise the wine competition that takes place in Beaune in Burgundy –this year it will be on April 6th – and regards 4.000 labels from all over the world blind tasted by a jury of 750 female experts from 18 nations

1. Men buy more wine than women– INCORRECT Women are the 1st buyers of wine in the world. In the US: Women make 83% of wine purchase UK: 80%     France: 70%         Switzerland: 60% Australia: 57%
2. Women only drink white and sweet wines-INCORRECT They drink mostly Red.

…

L'articolo Women and wine 10 false clichés sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

There are birthdays for children full of games and cakes; there are important ones such as those for 18 years, 21 years or even the “round figure one” to celebrate 30 or 50, which becomes parties with many guests. There are hen nights, degree parties and even parties for divorces. Casual parties with a DJ and many surprises or even elegant parties in dinner jacket with refined buffet, chandeliers and live music …. Each with its own character and small rituals. Each birthday boy or girl with a different dream for their special party but each looking for something new that can surprise friends and remain memorable.

Fattoria del Colle can create these memorable moments, at a convenient price or even in a fairytale way.

First of all the location: the places where it is possible stay have an advantage of excluding the drink and drive problem, and timing as well. After the dance those who like living the night can continue the party next to the open bar, with music slight less loud. The dimension of the location is important too …and not only so that all guests sleep close by (Fattoria del Colle has 100 beds in rooms, apartments and villas). The larger areas allow, through the magic bound to their history, for parties that can surprise and fascinate.…

L'articolo Birthday parties, and not only those, in an agriturismo in Tuscany sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

For Valentine’s Day: aphrodisiac Sienese cookery lesson, solemn promise in front of the golden tree, wine bath and couples’ massage ..Candle-lit dinners, tours of wineries… a weekend where you can live more intensely your romance in the quiet and noble Tuscan countryside.

For information write to holiday@cinellicolombini.it or call +39 0577662108.

GREAT WINES AND GREAT LOVES

The most precious products of the earth: wine and oil, contain aphrodisiac benefits known for centuries and that have r recently been confirmed by scientists. The discovery regarding red wine published by “Journal of Sexual Medicine” demonstrates how a couple of glasses increase desire within the couple. Without exaggerating though, too much has exactly the opposite effect, a fit of drowsiness.

What better place than Fattoria del Colle to verify the discoveries regarding the sexy virtues of wine?  In the Montalcino wineries and at Fattoria del Colle wines highly rated by the International press are made. Plus there is a restaurant on the hamlet, where the old farmhouses and the 16^th century villa have been changed into

During the weekend we have foreseen tours of the wineries plus wine tasting.

COUPLES’ MASSAGE WITH OIL AND ESSENCES

Among the noble gifts of the earth is also the extra virgin olive oil that has aphrodisiac effects: an oil massage, especially done as a couple, prepares the skin for caresses and stimulates pleasure with its aroma, which, added to lavender or other natural essences acts as aromatherapy and helps seduction.…

L'articolo Valentine's Day, celebrate early with a weekend in the countryside sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

If the American wine market is not entirely dominated by women, but we are nearly there. Let me introduce you to 3 different Wine Lady, the women who taste Italian wines for the main USA wine magazines. They are great experts, young, intelligent, open and hard workers as they work without rest.  Monica Larner, Kerin O’Keefe, Alison Napjus are the ones who give the ratings to the Italian wines for the most influential magazines on the American market Robert Parker-Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast and  Wine Spectator. Their ratings open the doors to Canadian monopolies and get wines into the wine lists of the most exclusive restaurants; they also help wineries in starting rapports with new importers. In other words they help in launching towards success.

Let’s get to know these three wine women better

MONICA LARNER

Monica Larner is from California but lives in Rome. She comes from a family where wine and cinema cohabit and it was during filming of the TV series “World War II” that she arrived in Italy in 1983. Her life continued between the family winery in the Ballard Canyon in Santa Barbara (California) and journalism that she studied in the universities of Boston and New York. In her professional life there are some experiences with daily newspapers such as La Repubblica and The Herald Tribune, the AIS sommelier course, many books on Italy and an immense photo archive of about 50.000 images.…

L'articolo Wine Lady: the 3 ladies of Italian wine in the USA sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Montalcino, Casato Prime Donne

The case with  Giallo Zafferano is emblematic. Born in 2006 thanks to Sonia Peronacci and her partner, both accountants who in their free time wrote and photographed recipes to then divulge online. This has become a venture that employs 30 people and has 2 million contacts per day, important investors…. But in the end  Sonia ended up not recognizing herself in this project, and has sold her shares and got out. Now she is concentrating on <<video recipes in English too (there is practically an online encyclopedia and I wish to open it up abroad”), and a wider view regarding the cuisine. “Something a little more modern in its contents with respect to GialloZafferano” for example intolerances>> she said in an interview for  Gamberorosso.

Another high end food blogger who has a similar passion but is oriented towards haute cuisine and refuses any publicity,: Ada Parisi from “Siciliani creativi in cucina”. When she came to prepare the “polpettine di tonno” and the “caponata” (a dream that you would just not believe) for the Casato Prime Donne award, I asked her <<but being a food blogger has a costs you?>> she touched her glasses and closed her mouth tight <<I am a journalist for a large agency, I try the recipes and I publish them as I like to cook them and share, if I must prepare them with ingredients I do not like, then I don’t do it!…

L'articolo Food bloggers in Italy: is it a hobby or a job? sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Information regarding frauds and advice for those who want at home an extra virgin olive oil to exalt the taste of food and is good for your health.

Frauds are destroying the wonderful reputation Italian extra virgin olive oil had. Prestige that had taken years and years of work and investments to get qualified olive groves, olive mills and employees. A million hectares of olive grove, the most olive oils with an appellation (44) in Europe, and the largest number of olive varieties in the world with  395 cultivar (see Cronache di Gusto).

On September 28th, the day dedicated to olive oil, that took place in Florence, became a court case, with Coldiretti on the defensive and 10,000 angry farmers who arrived in the city on their tractors.

Frauds have quadrupled; with in prime position the sale of foreign oils as if it were made in Italy and even sunflower seed oil labelled as extra virgin olive oil. So Roberto Moncalvo President of the Coldiretti asks for names <<of the companies where the oil from abroad is destined>>. This is in fact what is most scary for those who bring in tankers full of oil of dubious provenance and quality; Let us know their names.  29,5 million euro of sequestered goods,  58 people reported to the authorities have not in fact been sufficient to stop this ever growing scam: I buy oil abroad, I bottle it in Italy, and I sell it as if it came from our olive groves.…

L'articolo Extra virgin olive oil, too many frauds and not enough : buy it in the countryside sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The virtual wine grapevine is the major instrument for the growth of wine tourism. Up until 2013 it was a human chain mouth to ear, today the viral action that takes place on the web among wine lovers who publish images of their visit and comment the experience, wine bloggers who write posts that then get shared … A procedure that must be cared for and fed and in so doing you create a community with whom there is a daily dialogue. One of the most efficient instruments for this scope is the creation of a newsletter to be sent via internet every 15 days always the same day and time) to those who have visited the winery or who have made contact through the web site. It should contain offers reserved for faithful clients (events, special releases) ..the next few appointments and some news. The client becomes a friend –follower and is regularly updated with what is happening on the estate, so as to become aware of the daily goings on. The newsletter is also useful to sell courses, tastings, shopping to a particularly attentive and faithful clientele.

Obviously the mother of all news is the blog or the news section in the web site. Many wineries have a blog but only Marilena Barbera, of the Sicilian Barbera wineries has been able to get into the first positions in the international ratings as wine blogger.…

L'articolo Social media wine's virtual grapevine sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

3 big names have been chosen among those who divulge this territory: Giuseppe Casciaro editor of the Repubblica supplements, Bruno Gambacorta with his Eat Parade and Filippa Lagerback with her tourism by bike.

Chaimaa Fatihi, 23 years old, is studying law in Modena and is the commissary for the Giovani Musulmani d’Italia (young Muslims in Italy) at the Forum Nazionale Giovani, straight after the attack at Bataclan spoke for the Koran followers who are horrified by violence with an open letter -to terrorists then published on the front page of “Repubblica” <<Maledetti Teroristi– Damned terrorists>> she wrote <<My faith is in Islam, a religion that preaches peace …. As a Muslim I disclaim you, I fight you with words, with information, with the voice of those who live daily their faith and being an example of its teachings>>.

In this young woman who has affronted the fundamentalists wearing her veil and bare handed, the Jury of the Casato Prime Donne Award – made up of Donatella Cinelli Colombini president, Rosy Bindi, Anselma Dell’Olio, Anna Pesenti, Stefania Rossini, Anna Scafuri and Daniela Viglione- has seen an example of courage and a new type of femininity able to move consciences

The prizes for the journalism sections, destined to those who divulge the Montalcino territory and Brunello went to  Giuseppe Casciaro for the article Dall’albergo vicino a Montalcino un panorama suggestivo.…

L'articolo Chaimaa Fatihi, Giuseppe Casciaro, Bruno Gambacorta and Filippa Lagerback Casato Prime Donne 2016 sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

The 5 finalist photos have been chosen by the award’s jury made up of Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Rosy Bindi, Anselma Dell’Olio, Anna Pesenti, Stefania Rossini, Anna Scafuri ad Daniela Viglione.

Until September 4th it will be possible to access the voting box so as to choose the winner. It is sufficient to click on the button here below, look at the 5 images and choose your favourite; this can be done only once.

https://www.cinellicolombini.it/it/vota-la-foto-premio-casato-prime-donne-2016

The Casato Prime Donne Award has reached this year its 18th edition. It emphasizes the best work by journalists and photographers regarding the wine  territories in south of Siena and every year chooses a “Prima Donna”,  a woman who during the year stands out because of her way of life or in her work so as to become an example to women and not only. The list of past winners includes extraordinary women such as Samantha Cristoforetti the astronaut, Ilaria Capua the scientist, Sandra Savaglio,  Giuseppina Maria Nicolini Mayor of Lampedusa. At Casato Prime Donne each of them has left a quotation that has been inscribed on a travertine block and put next pieces of contemporary art by young Tuscan artists.…

L'articolo Vote for the best image of Val d'Orcia, the five finalists are now online! sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

There are still a few day left to be able to take part in the Casato Prime Donne 2016 award with photographs , articles, and TV and radio material regarding the wonderful Montalcino territory and Brunello, published between June 15^th  2015 and June 1st 2016. Before the 16th of June your entries must reach the Award Secretariat  (Casato Prime Donne 53024 Montalcino SI- casato@cinellicolombini.it).

Art, landscapes…. But most of all people from a land made famous by the excellence of its wines. As a prize there are bottles of prestigious wine as well as money (respectively 1.000 and 1.500 €) and the possibility of spending a week in an agritursimo apartment in

this enchanted countryside.

The winners of the journalistic sections are chosen by the jury made up of Francesca Colombini Cinelli, Rosy Bindi, Anselma Dell’Olio, Anna Pesenti, Stefania Rossini, Anna Scafuri e Daniela Viglione. The list of past winners is full of wonderful names from Italian and International wine journalism: the last edition saw as protagonists Anna Di Martino, Daniele Cernilli , Ian D’Agata,  Costanza Calabrese, Gaia Pianigiani and Walter Speller.

The photographic section on the other hand is awarded tank to a virtual jury who votes online the 5 finalist images. The chosen one sis then exhibited in a permanent way in the Sala Ilda Bartoloni in the Casato Prime Donne winery.…

L'articolo Last days to participate in the Casato Prime Donne Award 2016 sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

San Chimento and San Clemente were the same person: Pope Clemente 1st who died in Sebastopoli, maybe a martyr, at the end of the 1st century. In medieval documents the two names are often swapped and in the Sienese territory, crib of the Italian language, where still today there is a local vernacular surviving that is quite a conjunction between Latin and Italian, the names Chimento and Clemente continue to live together. So the chapel at Fattoria del Colle built by the owners ancestors, in 1592 is dedicated to San Clemente is surrounded by a farmhouse Sanchimento pronounced and written all in one word. Sanchimento is also the name of a wine obtained with Traminer grapes that are grown near the chapel in the Sanchimento property.

The 2015 harvest was particularly favourable for the vineyards thanks to a very rainy

winter and spring that caused a natural reduction in clusters and a reserve of water in the soil. In August the great differences between day and night temperatures favoured the synthesis or perfumes and the production of wines particularly rich in aroma.

Type: dry white.

Production area: Tuscany, Trequanda, Fattoria del Colle.

Vintage characteristics: mild and rainy winter, spring with frequent rainfalls that  interfered with the blooming and caused a natural decrease in production. The vine vegetative cycle began very quickly and was roughly held back by a very hot July that brought the cycle back to normal.…

L'articolo Sanchimento, the white wine from the lady of reds sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The large tour operators who sell tours in Italy by bus have now the habit of braking up the itinerary full of museums and shopping sprees with a day to relax in the countryside to slow down. Generally only one winery is visited where a tour, tasting and lunch take place. The wine stop is not necessarily in a very famous wine region but does certainly privilege those near the Venezia-Firenze-Roma motorways. This type of clientele chooses wineries where there are accessory services to wine (restaurant, cookery school, castles, monumental gardens…. ) as well as an offer with a very convenient price. Tour operators sign contracts for many years that foresee the arrival of many groups from March to October.

Other than these groups wineries r receive wine torus that come from hotels and information offices in tourism areas.  In this case too they are “tourist by chance” that buy an excursion among the vines in the same way as they would a ticket to an amusement park or to see glass being made in Murano. These are trips that last about 7 hours and that take visitors to a wine city (Montefalco, Barolo, San Gimignano…) and to one or two wineries. Generalized explanations, quick trip, booking on site and an affordable price of  50-100€ per person.…

L'articolo Wine tours for groups sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

There are still a few day left to be able to take part in the Casato Prime Donne 2015 award with photographs , articles, and TV and radio material regarding the wonderful Montalcino territory and Brunello, published between June 15th 2014 and June 1st 2015. Before the 15^th of June your entries must reach the Award Secretariat  (Casato Prime Donne 53024 Montalcino SI- casato@cinellicolombini.it).

Art, landscapes…. But most of all people from a land made famous by the excellence of its wines. As a prize there are bottles of prestigious wine as well as money (respectively 1.000 and 1.500 €) and the possibility of spending a week in an agritursimo apartment in this enchanted countryside.

The winners of the journalistic sections are chosen by the jury made up of Francesca Colombini Cinelli, Rosy Bindi, Anselma Dell’Olio, Anna Pesenti, Stefania Rossini, Anna Scafuri e Daniela Viglione. The list of past winners is full of wonderful names from Italian and International wine journalism: the last edition saw as protagonists Anna Di Martino, Daniele Cernilli and Ian D’Agata.

The photographic section on the other hand is awarded tank to a virtual jury who votes online the 5 finalist images. The chosen one sis then exhibited in a permanent way in the Sala Ilda Bartoloni in the Casato Prime Donne winery.…

L'articolo Few days left to participate in the Casato Prime Donne award 2015 sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

The project is an absolute novelty and is called “let’s play winemakers”. Instead of being a game for kids though this is an activity for adults, wine lovers, who wish to experience making a great wine according to their own taste.

Two locations: Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and  Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda in Southern Tuscany Minimum 4 pax (at 18 euro per person and maximum 12 pax at 16,00 euro per person

The programme lasts about two hours and is great fun. The first step is a guided tour of the vineyards and the winery. At   Casato Prime Donne, where the Brunello is made and aged, the barrels are alternated with paintings which talk about the history of Montalcino. At Fattoria del Colle where the Orcia, Chianti Superiore and supertuscan are produced, the winery is underground, beneath the 16th century villa and there is also a hermitage where we store the antique bottles of Brunello, and in the loft the Vin Santo is stored. These are two boutique wineries one different to the other but both equally interesting. During the tour our guests will take some pure Sangiovese out of an oak barrel.

This is the starting point of a very particular wine tasting. First tasting: Rosso di Montalcino, a pure Sangiovese that shows all the best values of this varietal: elegance, harmony, finesse….…

L'articolo How about playing winemaker? sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

How exciting! Only 20 Brunello in the Insider and only 4 in the “hot wines”. Mine is in second position with a splendid rating of 96/100

The ratings by the most read and most authoritative American wine magazine start their journey towards the podium starting from a minimum of  50-74 for the not recommendable wines, then there are the mediocre ones (75-79), the good ones (80-84) the very good ones (85-89). And finally the champions (90-94) and the summit or rather, the classical wines rated between 95 and 100 points.

So, our Brunello Prime Donne 2010 is a vino CLASSICO that would mean an icon such as the works by Raffaello, Mozart, Petrarca … Maybe I’m being a bit presumptuous with these comparisons? It must be aid though that the search for harmony does countersign all my wines but especially the Brunello and this does make the word “Classic” quite apt.

The description written by Bruce Sanderson, Tasting Director, who joined Wine Spectator in 1993, is to be framed. Here is how he recounts his sensations <<Features terrific fruit, with forthcoming aromas and flavours of cherry, raspberry and plum, accented by liquorice, leather and tobacco details that add depth. Well-structured, but stays balanced and precise, adding mineral and woodsy elements on the finish.…

L'articolo Wine Spectator gives my Brunello Prime Donne 2010 96/100 sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

There are some expenses but they are not enormous, if there is a real passion for wine, some talent and a real desire to transform a passion into a successful career. In fact the  real investment is one of the AIS, FISAR, ONAV, FIS, ASPI courses …. With a Sommelier diploma in hand, it is possible to proceed with the next phases. In Italy the diploma counts and this first step must be paid.

To go abroad does not allow you to save money, these first steps cost elsewhere also. In Europe there are sommelier associations practically everywhere connected to the ASI and periodically organize similar course to the Italian ones. In Great Britain there is the very prestigious House of Master of Wine, the dream of every wine lover. It proposes very high level courses and certainly not for beginners, to begin with it is much better to go to  WSET, Wine and Spirit Education Trust where recently the royal sister-in-law Pippa Middleton studied. So other than having good teachers it also has high level students! In USA it is possible to address your training right from the beginning depending on what one wants to do: Master Sommeliers for those who want to work in the restaurants, WSET  is more apt for those who wish to work as importers or wine stores, SWE Society of Wine Educators which forms future teachers.…

L'articolo How to make a career out of loving wine sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Seen for you by  Donatella Cinelli Colombini

61% of shipments goes  to 5 states where 37% of all Americans live: California, Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois. But others also do very well: thanks to the law that has facilitated shipping to private citizen, wine lovers form Montana have increate their wine orders by 245 % in one year. The real novelty is Massachusetts, 7th wine market in the USA, that from this year accept shipping from producing wineries .

The Oregon wineries are those who have done exceptionally well with a + 53% in sales to privates in just one year with  Pinot Noir coming up trumps. Oregon does seem to be the new star of the USA wine panorama, but there are also those who’ve been out there much longer such as Napa Valley, main wine making region of the US, which considers sales to private clients determent , and where it represents 48,5% of the business.

This all seems impossible considering the bad crisis we have in Italy. But the source is more than sure, its Wine Searcher, the largest online marketing platform for wine.

Italian wineries can send wine to 42 US states out of 50. The only large market to remain off limits is Pennsylvania who however seems to be near to liberalizing shipments from the place of origin. …

L'articolo 1.82 billion $ boom in the USA for direct wine sales sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

One recommendation is a must: those who do not have a cool (16°C constant with 80% humidity) and dark area where to keep the bottle laying down in the dark, is best that they avoid storing because it is very probable that they will be disappointed. Any wine and so Brunello too, ages very quickly in our warm and well lit homes.

The other piece of advice regards the bottles to cellar for important occasion. Al Brunello lasts a long time, but the variety thought up for very long cellaring is the Riserva. So if you wish to keep a bottle from your child’s year of birth, to then open at their wedding, use a bottle of Brunello Riserva.

The more careful wineries, like ours produce riserva only in the excellent years among these, awarded 5 stars are: 1945, 1955, 1961, 1964, 1970,1975, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1997, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010.

Casato Prime Donne belonging to Donatella Cinelli Colombini, is quite young although it has a long family history, has a library with bottles from 1993 onwards

MATCHING WITH FOOD

Better to stay with Tuscan dishes:  stracotto, roasts, rare Fiorentina steak or roast beef. As you know matching food and wine is based on two criteria assonance and contrast. They count on the tastes that each emphasise each other, or two tastes that compete each other.…

L'articolo Brunello to be cellared: the rules for enjoying it sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Remove the capsule, get a leather man’s shoe, with a nice hard heel, put the bottle into the shoe so that the bottom of the bottle stands where your heel goes and then hot the bottle on the wall holding it securely in the shoes. Three bangs and it’s done, voila! The cork comes out about a centimeter e and a half and that way it is easy to pull it out with your fingers. Amazing!

On YouTube you can find so many videos with French bottles being opened with shoes- there are even some young Russians doing it – and here I discovered that there are actually two uncorking systems: there are also those who open the bottle by hitting the heel of the shoe on the bottom of the upturned bottle after having removed the capsule. It seems really easy in fact the only worry seems to be not to hit too hard as the cork might shoot out and allow the wine out .

I wonder if it will work with bottles of Brunello, which, to ensure long life to the wine are corked with very thick and long corks. Watching a video on YouTube I realize however that the bottle used for the shoe-uncorking is a Château Haut-Brion. So feeling reassured, if it works with a Premier Cru Classé (First Growth), it will obviously work with the wines from Casato Prime Donne!…

L'articolo You don't have a corkscrew? Use a French wine and a shoe sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The project is called Prime Donne and it too happened by chance. Here is what happened. In 1998 other than receiving the two farms I also got a small quantity of wine from my parents, future Brunello still in barrel, and I needed someone to take care of it. I called the agricultural school in Siena asking for a promising cellar master but they said there were none, but when I said if there were girl students available, they said that there were , that they were excellent students but nobody wanted them.…

L'articolo Donatella Cinelli Colombini presents herself part 2 sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

In 2012 from June to August, it was hot day and night. An unusually dry climate for Montalcino that however was well resisted y the vines helped by the decrease in grapes and the continues hoeing of the land. Once again the vines have proven to be “intelligent plants” reducing by themselves their vitality. Less grapes, small clusters, loose The heat in August, when the temperatures were very high, during both the day and night, accelerated the ripening. This also  brought forward the harvest date. Small clusters with small loose grapes perfect for producing great wines but also apt to the extreme situation of hydro stress.

The storms at the beginning of September quenched the vines’ thirst  and brought the temperatures down in so creating the conditions for a gradual and perfect ripening of the grapes. The harvest too took place in optimal conditions with cool but serene days that sent the grapes into the cellar at 20-25°C.

After the spectacular success in sales of the Rosso di Montalcino 2011, especially abroad, it is very very probable that this  2012 will obtain the same results

Type: dry red.

Production are: Toscana, Montalcino, Casato Prime Donne.

Vintage characteristics: Dry winter where not even the great amount of snowfall moistened the soil. June July and August without rain and with very high day and night temperatures.…

L'articolo Rosso di Montalcino 2012, a fantastic 5 star vintage sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

This story is so incredible that you will not believe me. In  Australia there is a photographer that works full time on  “Wine dogs” and publishes books after books with images of dogs from wineries. He is called Craig McGill and his star is a 9 year old curly coated retriever called Rodney  that lives on Hugh Hamilton Wines. The same author created the website winedog where the presentation begins with “The original wine dog book”  which is a sort of winedog encyclopedia regarding dogs all over the world. There even a “Winedog of the moth” which in January was  Dutchess a labrador from the Dutcher Crossing Winery in California.

Practically all wineries in UA have a dog and books about them are on sale next to the bottles. Winedogs also have a Facebook page with more than 3000 likes. In Napa valley there is a list of dog friendly wineries and many many reviews in blogs regarding four legged friends. << Good wine, good dogs, great art and good company, what more could you ask for? >>  asks  dogzenergy while talking about a wine tasting where there is an area equipped for dogs to play.

And finally the contests: there is an award for the 5 tasting halls that are most dog friendly, and the Frank Family Vineyards got first prize.…

L'articolo WineDogs and wineries that are dog firendly, a new trend sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Spain, Italy, and France, great nations for wine production still choose corks, but screw-caps are loved more by Germans, Americans and the British. The aluminum closure is preferred mostly by young consumers and particularly by women

SCREWCAPS ARE EASY TO USE BUT NOT CONSIERED OPTIMAL FOR GREAT WINES

The data comes from a survey carried out by IPSOS regarding 6.000 consumers in Italy France, UK Germany, Spain and USA. What surprises is the great distance between the producers decisions and the preferences of those who buy bottles. So in Spain where screw-caps are used only on 10 % of wines, where 43% of consumers prefer them

Less difference in Italy where  59% of consumers still like to use the corkscrew and the  screw-cap’s progress is slow going from 17 to 19% on wine bottles in 5 years. But there is 34% of Italian who with equal prices would prefer the screw-cap for practical reasons, even though the majority of them are convinced that cork maintains the quality of the wine.

Those asking for aluminum closures are the importing countries with Britain top of the list.

It is in these markets that the screw-cap is no longer connected to low quality wines and most of all to wines with low prices.…

L'articolo Screw-caps beat corks, at least among young consumers sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini will personally welcome you, before the tour of her two wineries in Montalcino and in Chianti begins. The conclusion is a full immersion experience in Sangiovese having a bath in wine to regenerate your skin with the extraordinary virtues of the wines from Montalcino

For a minimum of 4 people                         €284.00 per person

Included in the programme:

2 nights’ stay in a double room with bathroom
2 buffet breakfast with homemade cakes and jams, fresh vegetables with olive oil dip, cold cuts and cheeses
2 traditional dinners (wines not included)
Tours, tastings, vinotherapy and meetings as indicated above
The price does not include transfers

PROGRAMME

Friday

Arrival at Fattoria del Colle agriturismo in Tuscany. Settle into rooms or apartment furnished mainly with antiques.

6 pm Donatella Cinelli Colombini will welcome guests in her Sixteenth century villa and will offer them a Sangiovese Rosé aperitif.

8 pm restaurant Osteria di Donatella : 3-course dinner with local specialities: including pappardelle con sugo toscano and tagliata di bue chianino

Saturday

8.30 – 10.00 breakfast

10 am experience in the Sangiovese, Foglia tonda and Traminer vineyards with a professional vintner who will explain the vegetative phases of the vine and the agricultural operations of the moment. The vines are organically cultivated.

10.30 am Transfer with own car to Casato Prime Donne winery in Montalcino

11 am Guided tour of the vinification areas and of the Casato Prime Donne winery where the Brunello barrels are interspersed with frescoes depicting the history of Montalcino.…

L'articolo Sangiovese weekend at Fattoria del Colle sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

There are 9 wine blog awards but the most important is surely the one for best blog post of the year. The award exists since 2007 and has quickly asserted itself as a prestigious prize.  There are about one

hundred participants and they get voted online, so as to choose the 5 finalists. A panel of experts then chooses the winner. The award living ceremony takes place during the Wine Bloggers Conference, resembling the real Oscar ceremony which takes place in front of the whole film world.
But let’s see you won the most desired prize, she is called Lauren Mowery and is a pretty young blonde journalist who writes about travel and wine. Here articles have been published by Wine & Spirits, Wine Enthusiast, Saveur, and The Wine Merchant …. and by many other magazines among which her personal blog Chasing the Vine. On  Twitter she has 14.200 followers … in other words she is a grand opinion leader and most of all she has had the courage to study a wine region which is still unknown such as Turkey letting us thus all discover a paradox. It is the nation with the longest wine making history – 7-15.000 years –and the political and religious situation most contrary to the consumption of alcohol.…

L'articolo The best 2014 wine post regards Turkish wines sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

It comes from the Sangiovese and Foglia Tonda vineyards at 400 metres above sea level in a ventilated position and well exposed to the sun. Hand picked grapes which are chosen once arrived in the cellar, where the selection table allows one to choose only the best grapes.

In the Fattoria del Colle winery the Cenerentola wine is aged in 500-700 litre tonneaux and in small French oak casks for one year. It is a satisfying wine, harmonious, powerful and long lasting because, the great vintages have quite the ability to reach soon very high quality levels and to maintain them for decades

A wine with solely Tuscan characteristics because it contains two traditionally old varieties: the elegant Sangiovese king of the Italian vineyard and the powerful Foglia Tonda which originates in the southern Siena area, which Fattoria del Colle has emphasized after nearly one century of disuse.

So finally Cenerentola (Cinderella) is about to become a princess. This wine owes its name to the position of the DOC Orcia wine region, born in 2000, between the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and the Brunello di Montalcino wine areas. Practically a challenge for the new wine appellation towards the two more famous and important “sisters”. But will it be the 2010 vintage that the Prince Charming will fall in love with?…

L'articolo Cenerentola 2010, will the Prince Charming fall in love? sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The science of selling wine, I found this piece of news on Intravino a few days ago and I was curious because it seemed so obvious. Even though those of us who are producers accept this reality reluctantly, the agreeability, the ability to involve, influence sales more than the intrinsic quality of the wine

Consequently the research carried out by the young professor from the Cornell University in New York, where Applied Economics and Management are taught, is not at all a pipedream, in fact id codifies and teaches the “golden rules for wine selling”. Indications which can be useful even for those who sell wines in Italy or for those wishing to create a tasting room.

After the inquiries carried out in the tasting rooms al lover New York, Gomez has written some rules for efficient wine selling and together with Oenology Professor Anna Mansfield has created courses on Long Island, on the Erie lake, Finger Lakes and East Gardner in collaboration with the Pennsylvania State University. In other words even though for us the subject is laughable we can see that the American universities have really taken it seriously. So, lets try an learn something starting from the article published in The Cornell Daily Sun which explains the results of these studies and the things to do.…

L'articolo To sell wine you need a great panorama and agreeability sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The meeting took place at the Tenuta Rubbia at Colle di Suvereto, on the Tuscan coast, with Professor Attilio Scienza from the Università di Milano as a real showman, with overwhelming enthusiasm

He is the “grape Sherlock Holmes” who for many years has investigated on the prehistoric origins of the vine and is now following the traces of its oldest containers. A return to the terracotta amphorae is for him a cultural action before being an oenological one, recuperating original knowledge and tastes << a way of contrasting wine being seen as a beverage with a stereotype and standardized taste, it is maybe a good idea to go back to old perfumes>> says the great Attilio. In fact , in Georgia where it is believed the vitis vinifera comes from, mother of all vines, wine is stored in amphorae (kvevri in Kakheti aand in Kartli ochuri in Imereti and in Racha), for the last 4.000 years.
So the diversity which seems to animate ever more so those who work with grapes, is not the main reason for the use of clay containers but there is also something more, practically nostalgia for an old type of simplicity and a return to manual things, without technology and a manual contact with the grapes that become wine.…

L'articolo Amphora yes amphora no, that is the dilemma sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.