Vines and wines

Wine and music at Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino

On Sunday May 26th great wines, great music and great images from the land of Brunello at Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s winery for a “sensorial” Cantine Aperte-Wine day

Montalcino, Casato Prime Donne winery Wine Day 2013

Donatella Cinelli Colombini, who in 1993 invented Cantine Aperte, has decided to renew the formula for the visit among the barrels, transforming it into an experience which exalts and comments wine with sounds, images and obviously tastes. The sound track studied by Bonella Ciacci – a sort of expert in wine and music accompanies 8 wines divided in three tasting spots.

We are at Casato Prime Donne, on the Montalcino hills, facing Siena, and this is where the wine and music trail is. First stop dedicated to Chianti and Doc Orcia from Fattoria del Colle, Donatella’s other winery. Here the music is contemporary Italian pop from the area such as Baustelle, Gianna Nannini and Jovanotti. The next stop in the Vineyard and the vinification areas called tinaia del vento built to produce Brunello with autochthonous yeasts.

94/100 in Wine Spectator for Donatella’s Brunello Riserva 2007

Bruce Sanderson the super wine taster for Wine Spectator has awarded the “enticing” Brunello Riserva 2007 from Casato Prime Donne with 94/100 [caption id="attachment_7990" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Brunello Riserva 2007 rated 94/100 from Wine Spectator"][/caption] The prestigious wine magazine “Wine Spectator” is a sort of bible for those who sell, collect or only drink great wines all over the world. Its authoritativeness depends on the level of its tasters who are all great experts absolutely impervious to any external influences. It for this reason, to guarantee this distance, that Brunello also is tasted in New York where the Consorzio sends, every years, nearly...

Sanchimento a Tuscan Traminer that will surprise you

The 2012 harvest will be remembered as one of the best regarding its quality and as one of the scarcest regarding the quantity.

IGT 2012 Sanchimento

Very few clusters of grapes. For this reason even the IGT Sanchimento has been produced in small amount and is reserved for the most affectionate clients.
In 2012 the vintage has seen great excesses in the climate. Great snowfalls, with one and a half metres of snow at Fattoria del Colle, the farmhouse of Donatella Cinelli Colombini, which caused nearly a months transport paralysis. Three moths of extreme heat without a cloud or drop of rain between June and September. In other words the vines were really put to the test. The surprise was their reaction: they proved to be “intelligent plants2 solving by themselves the majority of problems. They reduced their vitality and so produced less grapes and then “abandoned” part of it which remained green after the veraison and these were then removed when the thinning out took place. The grape growers also had an essential role, hoeing, removing the excess grapes, managing the green leaves with a work –intensive commitment without precedent and in the end their work was repaid with the awarding of 5 stars to the 2012 vintage, one of the best in the last 100 years.

Onions soup (zuppa di cipolle) from Isabella

Isabella Monguzzi has a wine store in Milano called Vincanto but her real passion is coking. She gifts us with her secret onion soup recipe

Onion soup and Rosa di Tetto IGT

Cooking in your home kitchen, if done cleverly, can reach excellent levels with poor ingredients and a little time at your disposal.

This soup is a perfect example; it is a dish fit for a king but it takes less than one hour to prepare. It must be matched with an important white or rosé wine such as the IGT Sanchimento and Rosa di Tetto 2012 from Fattoria del Colle, which are intense, and rich in aroma.

Two words regarding Isabella Monguzzi, she is a young woman full of courage who has succeeded in reinventing herself starting from her passion for wine. She hates things that are commonplace and she is constantly dedicated to finding labels still undiscovered, in fact quite a wine talent scout with great nose and imaginativeness. Go to Vincanto, she will surprise you.

Cardoons in the Val d’Orcia style

The most frequent recipe in Val d’Orcia is the winter one for cardoons, even though in Montalcinowe use the same recipe for celery which we eat

Gobbi rifatti Tuscan recipe and Leone Rosso DOC Orcia

in August

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Cardoons are among the tastiest and most refined vegetables that can be found. The term “gobbo” is used mainly in Tuscany while in Veneto it becomes “cardo” and in Nizza Monferrato “cardo-gobbo”. This is a wild artichoke, beautiful to see, in fact its leaves and flowers dominate the damasks , brocades and two pile velvets from the 17th and 18th century.

All about Vinitaly

The hopeful expressions and the work carried out by the wine makers during the largest Italian wine fair. The courageous proposals by Veronafiere for Asia.

Carlo Gardini and Violante

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

What is amazing is the lack of enormous traffic jams we were used to in the past, even though the Vinitaly pavilions were overflowing with people even more than usual. One was even scared to take an escalator in case it was not possible to get off again.

What most explains peoples desire to work hard is the type of shoes worn: no heels, and lots of walking shoes, a proclamation saying “no one is going to stop us!” In the Donne del Vino restaurant, on the first day of the fair, they continued serving lunches until 5pm, as there was such a crowd.

What are you talking about Soldera?

Soldera’s accusations towards the Consorzio and its Brunello producers published in “Corriere della Sera” are fantasy and can do a lot of damage

View of Montalcino

The nastiest thing is the accusing the Consorzio of having <<proposed a fraud, offering wine from others to be bottled as his own>>. This is ridiculous, the producers wanted to give him part of their production to help him in a difficult moment, creating a “Brunello della solidarietà” a Solidary Brunello and this is his reply? Is he not ashamed?

He creates doubts, talks of mysteries, when the only mystery is how miraculously barrel sand barrels of his precious Brunello have suddenly reappeared. At least 350 Hl it seems, not a demijohn ….at least 5 barrels for 50Hl, as the “Corriere della Sera” talks of 7.000 bottles per year. But hadn’t the vandalic act destroyed all of his wine? Are we maybe at the wedding at Cana?
Soldera accuses the Consorzio because it does not invest in the studies of control systems regarding the pureness of the Sangiovese for Brunello, but that is not true! The Consorzio has invested about 150.000 € in these studies, entrusting the to the major wine research centre in Italy, the one found in San Michele all’Adige. The researchers, directed by Prof. Mattivi have discovered a method of investigation and the Consorzio will present it during the next convention.

Tuscany wins in export by renewing the wine fairs

700 million Euro in 2012 with + 6,8% during the first 9 months for exports of Tuscan wines, a success built ton missions abroad and a new way of organizing fairs

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Florence - Buy Wine 2013

Very positive comments for the Tuscan wine exports where the DOCG and DOC wines have opened the way with +9,6% built especially through the expeditions to the USA. The stars and stripes wine lovers are among the major Tuscan wine estimators, these Tuscan wines in the States have proven a well deserved + 14% , this is market where in fact the most investments for events and tastings have been done by the Consorzi and by the Regione Toscana.

The amministrazione regionale – Toscanapromozione – has organized the first true wine fair of the new millennium: Buy Wine at the Fortezza da basso in Florence where the producers met operators through an innovative method of making offer and demand meet. 10.000 exhibitors and 30.000 operators took part at the event.

Vancouver you are so beautiful, but so humid

Canada, Vancouver start off in a limousine and then a free day on Sunday with market stalls, ferry boat and American-Indian dances. Monday extra long Brunello

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

MOA Vancouver Native American dances

Once again in Canada and this time with the other Brunello producers. We are in Vancouver and we are all dressed for winter, but here it is hot, hotter than Montalcino at least.
Upon arrival the Brunello producers find a limousine with lounge and ceiling with lighting similar to a Christmas tree waiting for them. We were all overawed but happy.
Sunday was a free day with a visit to the market stalls, a ferry boat trip across the bay and then the Museum of Anthropology with the American Indian music festival. Wonderful!
The city is quite rainy but beautiful, what is especially fantastic is the lifestyle, with many young people and many different races. Asians, European immigrants…if there is a really multiethnic place then that is Vancouver. It also seems a happy city, with no tensions and a great love of life.

Prime Donne tasting Brunello 2012 and 2010

Inspiring tasting for the Prime Donne with two 5 star Brunello: the brand new 2012 and the 2010 ready to be prepared for bottling Daniela Scrobogna and Astrid Schwarztogether with the consultant wine [caption id="attachment_7788" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="My daughter and the Prime Donne on tasting"][/caption] maker Valérie Lavigne and the cellar master Barbara Magnani finished the tasting with a smile, sure to have chosen wines that will have an impact. With no Brunello 2009 to taste, vintage where the selection Brunello Prime Donne will not be produced, the super tasters concentrated on the vintages 2012 and 2010. The 2012 inspired them for its power and...

New millionaire wine making neighbours in Tuscany

The Tuscan wine making regions, especially Montalcino, attract people with immense fortunes who want to see their name on dream bottles

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The castle of Colle Massari winery

Next door to Casato Prime Donne a property has been bought by Alejandro Pedro Bulgheroni Argentinean billionaire from the petrol sector with investments al lover the world and vineyards in Argentina, Uruguay and California. We expect him to transform the present rural buildings, in front of us, into a villa with heliport.

The new owner of Argiano, still in the Brunello area, is a Brazilian indicated by Forbes as one of the 300 richest men in the world. He has fallen in love with the splendid 16th century villa built according to a project by Baldassarre Peruzzi – a sort of Tuscan Chateau – and with the noble history of this location where, among others, Foscolo, Carducci, D’Annunzio and Zolà have stayed.

Fireworks for the Benvenuto Brunello 2013 edition

Glamorous, rural, traditional and new….. here’s Benvenuto Brunello 2013 in front of and behind the scenes

Young producers for Benvenuto Brunello 2013

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Certainly the 135 wineries present have brought some excellent Brunello 2008 which are immediately enjoyable. Some say that they are so good now that they will not age well, I am convinced that that is not true, and that these have been vinified better that in the past and so consequently will last decades, or event centuries.

I do not wish to talk about the wines, if not to say that mine – from Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino – have been liked by all (were you expecting me to say the contrary?)- instead I would like to tell you some curiosities. First of all the Gala party in the cloister in Sant’Agostino. 50 tables with a mirror surface and chandeliers one meter high in transparent Plexiglas. Tablecloths, serviettes, seat covers, water glasses and even the cutlery all black. In other words quite a Hollywood style that however gave a glamorous touch to our usual restrained Montalcino manner. Those present at Benvenuto Brunello for the first time actually goggled, like Federico Castellucci Direttore generale OIV who said << you have nothing to envy from the French, these evening is fantastic>> and then in a whisper –I was not expecting anything of this level, I wish to compliment you.!-