Vines and wines

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.

The message in colours on wine labels

Red, purple, blue, black and gray these are the colours on wine labels that help choose, sell and even raise the price of bottles in the USA

Bottle colours Wine Intelligence

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini Brunello Casato Prime Donne

Colours have a fundamental role in the wine packaging and sometimes even in its commercial success. Let us not forget that in 92,6% of cases sales are influenced by visual factors. Colours play a decisive role in these choices, they create sensations that differ from consumer to consumer – elegance, exclusivity, handicraft, – and so must be chosen according to the producer and the wine trying to represent in the most faithful manner the contents of the bottle. Only in this way will we have a satisfied client who will find I the bottle what his eyes had promised him.

Brunello di Montalcino 2010

Colours have different meanings in every culture but those common to the western world must be known and used. In fact sometimes they communicate things even when they have been inadvertently put on a label so it is better to know what they mean.

Music at the Prime Donne

Casato Prime Donne, the first winery in Italy with an all female staff becomes a music workshop: Igor Vazzaz and his wine and music masterpiece 2015

Igor Vazzaz (© Elena Modena)_02

Introduction by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Five months of trials and here is born a sensorial experience to be launched on September 13th during the Casato Prime Donne Award 2015, and to then remain permanently active. It unites and changes the perception of places, wines and music under the direction of the intellectual eclectic and transgressive Igor Vazzaz.

Montalcino Casato Prime Donne barrel ageing

For a long time I had been searching for a wine expert who was also a wine expert, and who would be able to choose the right music to accompany my wines while being tasted in the winery where they are made. Thanks to my friend Marzia Morganti I met Igor Vzzaz .I immediately liked him and I asked him to choose for the  “la musica delle Prime Donne” an itinerary in sound ambiance able to express new sensations while tasting 4 wines. It will surprise you when you come to visit

Let me present Igor Vazzaz to you. He is half Tuscan and half Friulian, born in 1974; singer songwriter, theater critic, essayist,  sommelier, cultural editor, sports journalist, semi-satirical writer

He has been for many years on the tasting panel with other AIS sommeliers for the magazine “Sommelier Toscana”. He teaches theatre in the Università di Pisa, but music is his great passion: from the traditional Tuscan songs to the Irish folk songs from  define popular music by artists who write and perform their own material, and he  even composes with the  etnosurf group Tarantola 31 with whom in 2013 he published an album Nonostante Maria (va tutto bene).

New York Times talks of Brunello: time for harmony

Eric Asimov writer, wine critic at The New York Times since 2004, says that the secret is, balance, and he loves Sangiovese from Casato Prime Donne

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Eric Asimov

The beginning of the article doesn’t promise much <<For a great wine, Brunello di Montalcino has had more than its share of detractors>>. And then he worsens the situation by reminding one that many wines are far too  muscular and intense to be made of only Sangiovese, and how , in the past some producers asked to add other grapes to  Brunello, << a disastrous redefinition that was narrowly averted>>

So as is usual in the Anglo-Saxon world his opinions are stated without too many twists, Eric Asimov likes Brunellos that are traditional, that respect the noble tradition of the Biondi Santi’s, and it is from those who hope to attain this that the most interesting contributions arrive. 

Brunello maker performs in Montalcino with Bacalov's music

 Carlo Cignozzi producer of one of the most famous Tuscan wines in the world writes and performs a play with music by Oscar-winning Luis Bacalov  

Brunello di Montalcino producer – Barbatelle play

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Among my friends I have many interesting people, one of them is Carlo Cignozzi, 72 and a genius. In his estate, where he makes Brunello, he has music in the vineyards, where Mozart is played all day long to his vines. His vines do not get ill and so he needs no pesticides. His project arrived well before the recent discovery “musica delle piante” (music by plants) -study by Demanhur at Cascina Trivulza at Expo.

Brunello di Montalcino producer – Carlo Cignozzi

And that is not all, this eclectic man also wrote a book in 2010 called “L’uomo che sussurra alle vigne”. The man who whispers to his vines, edited no other than by Rizzoli, the true story of his adventure, lawyer from Milan who turns into a Brunello winemaker, through a Brazilian shaman.

How much does a vineyard cost?

From 2000 to 2013 Brunello vineyards have tripled their value while the average price of Italian vineyards increased by 21%

Barolo-vineyard

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The most expensive vineyards are in Barolo and in the Bassa Langa di Alba dove where it is possible to find those who buy at a million euro per hectare, although the average is of around 600,000 euro. This list puts in second position the Doc areas of the lago di Caldaro (BZ) with 500,000 euro per hectare, with an historic overtaking of those that have always been the most expensive vineyards in Italy. Veneto gives an exceptional show with Docg di Valdobbiadene at 404,000 euro, a price which however seems too low for the Cartizze area, where if someone sells, they want astronomic amounts. I mean astronomic if compared to the prices of French vineyards, especially in Burgundy, ours appear to all seem quite affordable.

Alto-Adige-vineyards

This study by the “Filiera vitivinicola: tendenze e prospettive per l’Italia. La Toscana e i valori fondiari agricoli”, carried out by the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, finally reaches Central Italy where the average prices in Montalcino soar. For Brunello vineyards the request is for 350.000€ .

A spring- like aroma for Donatella's 2014 rosé

The cool 2014 summer gave this wine a rich aroma, a more French style than Italian to the Rosa di Tetto IGT 2014 from Fattoria del Colle

Rosa di Tetto 2014 IGT Toscana Fattoria del Colle

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The practically “northern” characters are evident in the pink shade, in the freshness in taste and most of all in its perfumes which recall green apples and spring flowers. Characteristics perfectly apt for a wine to be consumed during summer evening meals but also after.

The Rosa di Tetto comes from Sangiovese vineyards at Fattoria del Colle; these are cultivated with an organic regime, without the use of pesticides, and with pruning, diminishing the yield, removing the leaves…. all done manually. The picking was also done by hand with a careful choice of the clusters in the vineyard and later in the cellar.

Rosa di Tetto gets its name from the climbing roses that can be seen on the front of the chapel at Fattoria Del Colle. These are hundreds of years old and tend to climb up to the roof and grow beneath the roof slates.

When wine adverts don't tell the truth

What happens if a winery pretends to have certain characteristics or elements that in truth are inexistent? And what happens to those who copy the name of a wine or its label?

Untrue publicity

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

<< … any publicity, in any way, including the presentation that can bring one to incur in error … >> is prohibited, both when it cheats the consumer, and when it damages a competitor, this is false advertisining . This is what the Law called Codice del Consumo from 2005. So it not sufficient to check what is written on the bottle labels but it is necessary to check the packaging, the brochures the web site and all other instruments used by the winery to communicate.

The cheated consumers have two instruments at their disposal: the   IAP Istituto di autodisciplina pubblicitaria and the Antitrust. The first is private and deals with a self-discipline code and a private Jury. The second is public and refers to the Codice del Consumo a consequently to a law that foresees penalties.

94 and 93 out of 100 from Wine Advocate: our Brunello flies skyward

Monica Larner, super taster for Italy for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate the most important wine guide in the world, rewards Brunello and Brunello Prime Donne 2010

Wine Advocate Brunello 2010 DonatellaCinelliColombini

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Before I talk about the ratings of my two wines I would like to say two words about Monica Larner . She is American but lives in Rome and speaks perfectly Italian. She is a workaholic and tastes with great concentrations for hours. A few years ago she began publishing her ratings on Brunello before all others and being often criticized for this by some bloggers. <<Don’t worry>> I told her << Brunello is born at midnight on the first of January; from that moment it is in your right to ask to taste and the Consorzio’s duty to organize the tasting>>.

Monica Larner

It is a risk to express an opinion for first regarding a de nomination that is followed by the whole world. But she has this courage and she has proven it also in emphasizing the wines from the south of Italy. Not only is she courageous but she is bale to foresee new trends and leave the old behind. These gifts she shows in an artful way in the introduction to her Brunello 2010 tasting putting in evidence the two spirits of this wine: the elegant side that looks towards Burgundy (large barrels) and the powerful side that looks towards Bordeaux (barrique). Brunello’s Yin and Yang, the cool nights and the sun.