Vines and wines

Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Prime Donne 2011

Brunello Prime Donne was born as a challenge when the Wine Guides only had men tasters and it has become the first red wine dedicated to women.

Brunello di Montalcino Prime Donne 2011

In 1998 when Donatella Cinelli Colombini had just received from her parents Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in southern Chianti. Two properties to renovate so as to create a new estate. Lots of investments to be done but also a small,l but also very important, help to begin with: some small quantities of winedestined to become Brunello from the vintages 1993-1997. The search for a cellar master to take care of the wines brought usto chooses a female “head of the cellar” also to the choice of having an all female staff in the cellar, and also to the decision to make the first great red wine apt for a long ageing dedicated to women consumers, the Brunello Prime Donne. Practically a provocation in an era when the guide books for wine had only panels of male tasters.

Prime Donne – Brunello tasting

During the years the Brunello Prime Donne has obtained more and more consent from the international wine press and from the consumers (mostly men). Then last year it was submerged by prizes.

The Brunello “Prime Donne “ is a selection, so it is chosen from all the wine produced from the same vintage. The panel of tasters chooses which wine will become Prime Donne. And in which barrels it must be aged. The panel is made up of 4 very expert lady wine tasters, and they meet once or twice a year. They are the Italo-American Pr Marina Thompson, the German wine shop owner Astrid Schwarz, and one of the best Italian sommeliers Daniela Scrobogna to whom during 2015 we have added the English Master of wine Rosemary George to substitute Maureen Ashley.

Homemade "Cult wine"

In the East Village in NY in an apartment of about 50 m2 the first domestic winery was born, created in the home of a young engineer of Italian origin

Willage winery club

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Casato Prime Donne

I read about this in “Gambero rosso”, the article regards an engineer of Sicilian origin who lives in the East Village in New York and is called Matthew Baldassano. At a first glance it resembles an urban winery like others in London and in Canada but, in this case it is a flat where the up and coming winemaker lives usually, plus the production aims high , it aims at becoming a  “cult wine” , term usually used to indicate wines with a high price and great image such as, to quote Wikipedia <<for example, Screaming Eagle from California and Penfolds Grange from Australia, among many others ….Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Margaux, Château Haut-Brion, and Château Mouton Rothschild>>.

Mattehew Baldassano Village Winery club

And here on the contrary the concept of cult is turned over. The value given to the wine does not come from the Robert Parker rating or from the vineyards as for Romanée Conti and neither from the prestige of an historic name such as Frescobaldi, but from the fact that the consumers of these bottles personally take part in its production. This is how Baldassano created the “Village Winery Club” and twice a year he buys grapes from California and Chile (petite Syrah, Cabernet and Zinfandel) and invites people to participate via his  Facebook page <<Tempus Est Iam For those who want to get involved in the‪#‎urbanwinemovement>> is what he wrote on September 16^th last. The Village Winery Club has more than 100 members and to participate costs 200$.

Brunello 2010 Riserva a masterpiece

<<This is the best Brunello I have ever produced>> says Donatella Cinelli Colombini, <<a masterpiece in harmony, power and longevity that bowls you over with finesse>>

Brunello Riserva 2010 Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Wine lovers from all over the world have been waiting for it for years: the Riserva 2010 will follow the spectacular international success had by the regular 2010 Brunello.

Born as a 5 star vintage, a year where the climate was so favourable, and where, a real exception, there were many grapes and were extraordinarily good. There were other exceptional things in 2010: thanks to a cool summer, even though full of sunny days, when the grapes were picked the vines were still in their vegetative period. The photographs show us pickers with their scissors in hand under vines with a colour as if in spring. Rare but very favourable condition.

From the Brunello Riserva 2010 we obtained the selection IosonoDONATELLA

Casato Prime Donne Montalcino all women winery

Vintage characteristics: very rainy and snowy winter and spring. Thanks to the hydrated soil the vines resisted well the very hot month of July. In August the heat was mitigated by some storms, shortly after the colouring of the grapes a thinning out of the fruit was done. The grapes destined to become Brunello Riserva were identified before harvest started. For their choice and for deciding the day to pick special analysis was carried out on a laboratory, but most of all tastings were done. The grapes reached the cellar separate from the rest to be vinified (maceration was longer than for the regular Brunello) and later aged in barrels with careful, practically daily, attention. For the Riserva 2010 special oak tonneaux of medium charring were bought from 3 French workshops, practically barrels made to measure to emphasize the extraordinary potential of the wine.

Brunello di Montalcino 2011 surprising and feminine

4 stars vintage, the most anticipated and the quickest we’ve ever seen. The grapes were sound but with very few clusters that at Casato Prime Donne have been handled with the most gentleness.

Brunello di Montalcino 2011 Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Montalcino Casato Prime Donne Tinaia del vento

Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s wineries are the fist to have an all female staff. This is a project born in 1998 especially for the production of Brunello when Donatella tried to find a cellar master to take care of her wines when her parents gave her two wineries, to be renovated – Casato in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in southern Chianti. Finding a young cellar master proved to be quite difficult; there were though many young girls, with the same title who could find no winery prepared to give them the technical management. It is quite form this episode that the idée of an all female project begins with the scope of demonstrating women’s’ ability in wine. Now 17 years later and thanks also to global warming, that has given the vineyards in Montalcino a much superior quality potential than in the past, Casato Prime Donne has progressively distinguished itself for the production of a traditional Brunello of high quality and extreme elegance. Harmonic wines then and very satisfying right from the beginning and at the same time long lasting thanks to the slow and gradual ripening of the grapes. Today Brunello from Casato Prime Donne is exported to 34 countries and it’s appreciated by the most important international specialized press.

Grappa di Cenerentola and the fairytale has a new flavour

Cenerentola Doc Orcia is Violante Gardini’s favourite wine (Cinellicolombini Jr); she has hence created a grappa in small bottles quite apt for young princesses   

CENERENTOLA GRAPPA and shapper bag

<< I am a great romantic and the Cinderella fairytale always made me dream, also the Cenerentola wine is the one I love most, for this reason I have created a young grappa from one grape variety dressing it like a princess, elegant and trendy>> says Violante when talking about her first marketing project for 600 small but very refined bottles of Grappa di Cenerentola.

GRAPPA FROM FOGLIA TONDA GRAPES
First of all the grappa:  one must remember that it comes from the distillation of the grape-skins extracted from the vats and pressed, when the fermentation is finished and the wine is racked into another container. Violante has used the Foglia Tonda skins, a local autochthonous variety o grapes from the Siena region used only for the production of the ’Orcia Doc “Cenerentola”. She has chosen the   “Distillerie Alboni Srl” for the distillation, a small artisanal workshop in Mensanello, near Colle Val d’Elsa, so quite close and where the grape skins reach still warm.   The facility uses the discontinuous system with vapour from two boilers and a still where everything is done manually and the process is very long.

GRAPPA DI CENERENTOLA

PACKAGING: CENERENTOLA BECOMES A YOUNG PRINCESS

<<I only had 120 litres of grappa but it was precisely for this reason, the exceptional quality  of this brandy distilled product obtained from a rare and old grape variety, Foglia Tonda, of which  Fattoria del Colle is the major producer, that I had the idea of a challenge. A new type of packaging: a very small 20 c bottle, like perfume, pace in a shiny black mini-shopper-bag, Like those we young women use to go to the beach with our friends>>

Donatella Cinelli Colombini presents her Spumante

“Amici di vigna” 4 grape growers from Trentino and Toscana unite to produce a Spumante blanc de blanc that stays 42 months with the yeasts

Spumnate – sparkilng wine- Donatella Cinelli Colombini

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Brunello Montalcino

The project is called “Amici di vigna” – Vineyard Friends. Because it is from the friendship between 4 grape growers, who manage their family activities and with a passion for great wines, that the idea of producing together series of exclusive Spumante comes from.

This Spumante is obtained with Chardonnay grapes grown in Trentino, and has kept with the yeasts in the Gaierhof cellar belonging to Togn Luigi. For the disgorgement Fausto Peratoner took over, he too is a grape grower and wine maker with great experience in Spumante, and, a few years ago was President of the Istituto Trento DOC.

Gaierhof vineyards in Trentino

The two Tuscan members of “Amici di vigna” are the estates Donatella Cinelli Colombini and I Balzini in Barberino Val d’Elsa belonging to Antonella and Vincenzo D’Isanto. Because of the high quality, the accurate and artisanal execution   this Spumante fits in well with the ranges of products of the two Tuscan both run with passion and competence by those who really believe in the Vineyard and in small prestigious productions.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini has united in the project her three “Amici di vigna” Luigi Togn, Fausto Peratoner and Antonella D’Isanto and now she is pleased to present this small selection of a great Spumante.

Will there be VINE on the earth?

Angelo Gaja tells us his opinion about the effect of global warming in the vineyards. The  “Il Corriere vinicolo” summarizes the positions of worldwide experts

Angelo_Gaja

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The title is “Ci sarà vite sulla terra?” ( a  pun with the word vite that means both vine and life) and in the article one finds a synthesis of the various opinions. Those who own or work in millionaire vineyards tend to deny  the effect  of the warming to so defend their strong position, while a large slice of the scientific community statesthat the geography of the better territories will change privileging regions that are further North and with more altitude. The replies to climate changes go from empiricism to genetics, but one thing is sure: we cannot lose time and as we cannot change the causes, grape growers must adapt the vineyard by mitigating the climate effects. I am one of the beneficiaries of

Sangiovese vineyard Fattoria del Colle

global warming with Brunello vineyards in the cooler area , this has strongly increase their quality potential thanks to the increase in temperatures but this does not mean that the global problem does not exist.

TROPPO CALDO NEI VIGNETI by Angelo Gaja (november 2015)

The grape growers and the wine producers consider differently the climate that is changing.

Are all wineries open to the public a wine destination?

Obviously not. To attract tourists the winery must be a star or it must be in an area where there are already many tourists

Cantine Aperte – Wine Day at night

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini creator of Cantine aperte-Wine day

The second situation is much easier than the first

It’s worthwhile explaining that tourism moves towards areas which have three characteristics: they must be different, well known, and organized.

The diversity is the most important element, nobody goes on a trip to visit a city, a restaurant or for entertainment the same as many others. For it to be worthwhile it must be unique and to be perceived as such it must be known and desired by many people. This is what communication is for, while organization regards two business aspect: the sales network, which makes the place accessible and the offer of products and services which make up tourism consumption.

Villa Sandi Wine Day

To build a destination with these characteristics is very difficult for one sole winery. The Lungarotti family in Torgiano managed to do it, but in another period, in a beautiful area, with great investments and, also thanks to Mrs Maria Grazia’s refined culture, have they succeeded in creating the most beautiful wine museum in the world. To duplicate this is surely hard to do.

Social Vignerons the best new 2015 wine blog

Socialvignerons is an icon in viral wine talking; it comes from New Zealand and from a winemaker with a degree from the University of Bordeaux: Julien Miquel

Julien Miquel

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Casato Prime Donne

Julien Miguel began as a “Flying winemaker” and for 10 years has worked for  Chateau Margaux and Kangaroo Island in southern Australia, Sonoma County, Ribera del Duero, Toscana, Margaret River, Toro in Spain … then he decided to change his rapport with wine and to become a communicator. He cared for the publishing of Wine-searcher. com, the most clicked wine portal in the world for 6 years. This took him to New Zealand, a wonderful place where he has literally settled.

Social-Vignerons

In December  2014 he decided to set off on his own and launched a blog called socialvignerons.com, six months later he wins the 2015 Best New Wine Blog , prize awarded by the Wine Blogs Awards. And he deserves it.

In the home page one finds the number of followers: Twitter 216.000, Facebook 13.500, Instagram 20.000, LinkedIn 5.600. Are you convinced about the ability of this genius in social wine?

Chianti superiore DOCG 2013 a super traditional vintange

2013 was a vintage to be called “old style” consequently fresh, with a very slow ripening of the grapes, grapes able to give the wine complexity, harmony and elegance.

Chianti superiore 2013 fattoria del colle

Chianti superior is our first red wine on the shelves from 2013. This is a favourable circumstance because it associates to the most traditional Tuscan appellation a vintage with character that is particularly Tuscan and traditional. So placing the 2013 Chianti Superiore under the motto of tipicity.

Chianti superiore 2013 Fattoria del Colle

Fattoria del Colle where this wine is produced is in southern Tuscany, at 404 metres above sea level on the hills, where there are plenty of woods and small valleys where the white truffle is born. The vineyards are on the crest, in a ventilated position with an excellent exposition. Practically all the vineyards have been planted by Donatella Cinelli Colombini and are consequently young, but masterpieces with the objective of producing exceptional wines. Fattoria has in total 16 hectares of vineyard on a surface of 336 hectares and mainly the new vineyards have been planted where her great grandfathers were, he too as passionate about Chianti.

2015 a Dream of a Harvest

This was a real triumph, a wonderful harvest. In all my life I have never seen anything similar; all the clusters were perfect, ripe, small and perfectly sound, from the first to the last.

Harvest 2015 Brunello Donatella Cinelli Colombini

In the Brunello region this harvest beats even the great 2010 vintage, and news coming from the rest of Italy is good too.

2015 Harvest – Assoenologi data

To be on the safe side I wrote little about the 2015 harvest. I kept my fingers crossed and I waited until all the grapes had reached the cellar. It was over in a flash: 7-9 September merlot, 21 -30 September Sangiovese, Foglia Tonda and Sagrantino. A big team of 18 youngsters went up and down the vine rows scissors in hand. Red baskets filling the bins ready to be taken to the cellar at Casato Prime Donne and Fattoria del Colle. Also quick, so quick that Barbara the cellar master had trouble keeping up with grapes arriving on the sorting table. A harvest amid music, many pickers had on headphones as if they were jogging. Maybe this is what accelerated the rhythm. This is something worth thinking about, even though the music isolates and stops the chitchat full of jokes, taking the Mick and camaraderie which for centuries has been the life of grape-picking.

1.600 quintals 160 tons of grapes, not even that much. In my 33 hectares an average of 46 quintals per hectare, so 4,6 tons.

Are you ready to find a fish in your glass?

During the next 5 years regionalism and seasonality will pass from the plate to the glass, all that is unusual such as healthonism will be protagonist

yoga and red wine

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Casato Prime Donne

In the near future we will see in beverages the same sort of evolution as seen in food, with proposals of niche products which are very local and change with the season. A way of revenge for all that is “handmade” and “homemade”, all this becomes trendy because made in small quantities and different. To eat and drink becomes something sophisticated <<food and drink as an experiential luxury and reflection of their personal identity.

As often happens this news comes from Drinks Business who in turn got it from a report in 2015 by “Future Food and drink” by the studio J Walter Thompson Intelligence and regards a survey on the UK and USA populations.

And, as always in trends here too there is a handicraft and an industrial dimension.

sex on the beach cocktail

Here the colossuses create hybrid drinks like the American from the whisky Whistlepig who launch a special type aged in barrels used for Sauterns and for Madeira. And also the Innis & Gunn beer infused with Bourbon.

In the cocktail sector there is a revival of the 1970’s  – Grasshopper, Tequila Sunrise and Sex on the Beach – sometimes the ingredients have been substituted with more natural and fresh ones, in some the additions are fun such as edible sand or fish (hopefully not real!).

The Dragon wag his tail and the 8 Doves fly happily in 2012

5-star harvest for Il Drago e le 8 Colombe 2012 where the structure of the Sagrantino, the roundness of Merlot and the elegance of Sangiovese blend perfectly togheter.

Il Drago e le 8 colombe IGT Toscana 2012

The most incredible harvest man can remember in 2012: the winter was dry because the massive snow falls in February left the soil dry . Warm spring very hot summer but more importantly 3 months without a drop of rain. Then a miracle occurred and the storms arrived at the beginning of September to hydrate the vines and permitted a ripening that was regular and complete. In the end the grapes were perfect for the production of great red wines. In 2012 there were other exceptions: the harvest was the scarcest in grapes that we can remember. At Fattoria del Colle we picked much less than half of what we usually pick, practically only the grapes for the best wines: Cenerentola DOC Orcia and Il Drago e le 8 Colombe.

Merlot_Donatella_CinelliColombini

Il Drago e le 8 Colombe is the only wine made by Donatella Cinelli Colombini, dedicated to men, and precisely to her husband Carlo Gardini – the dragon. Her two wineries are in fact a flagship for female winemaking because the staff are all women, and these are represented by the 8 doves in the name and on the label.

It is made with grapes from the vineyards, at 400 m above the sea level on the ridge that separates the Val d’Orcia from the Val di Chiana at 18 km from the Umbrian borderline. Three different grape varieties are used, vinified and aged in barrel separately, and then blended with the intent of obtaining a perfect equilibrium between the elegance of the Sangiovese, the roundness of the Merlot and the structure of the Sagrantino. This last variety comes from Umbria that is close by and at Fattoria del Colle has found a particularly favourable habitat.

Will 2012 be Cenerentola's Prince Charming?

The top wine at Fattoria del Colle from a 5 star vintage, arrives full of elegant lushness just like a real princess form the DOC Orcia

The 2012 harvest was the scarcest harvest ever at Fattoria del Colle. Few clusters, small but of high quality that were practically all used or the most important wines:

Cenerentola 2012 Orcia Doc

Cenerentola DOC Orcia and the Il Drago e le 8 Colombe IGT.

2012 was an odd year; the winter was dry regardless of the heavy snowfalls and the very hot summer, without rain, until September. To help the vines put up with the hydro stress the grapes were which were already scarce where diminished through pruning. In the end in the

2012 must

Fattoria del Colle vineyards there was less than half the usual amount of grapes, but with  anthocyanins and tannins – the noble substances – so abundant and soluble to give the wine a an opulent and rewarding lushness. Cenerentola 2012 is a very pleasant young wine and it will age for decades

This wine is made with grapes from two local varieties from Tuscany, Sangiovese and Foglia Tonda. This latter is an old variety that was abandoned about a century ago when the farmers we too poor to wan to thin out the grapes, and wanted to leave them all on the vine, but at harvest they were not all ripe. Thanks to Vitarium in the Regione Toscana, who supplied us with the cuttings for the first grafting, for the past 15 years we have cultivated two vineyards wog Foglia Tonda and have learned to love and emphasize this variety. Its wines are powerful and apt to be united with Sangiovese which on the other hand is a champion in elegance.