News from the cellar at Fattoria del Colle
About 2000 antique bottles of Brunello, Cenerentola Doc Orcia and IGT “Il Drago e le 8 Colombe” enrich the cellar at Fattoria del Colle
Fattoria del Colle – room for Il Drago e le 8 Colombe
Year after year we put aside 100 bottles of our most important wines before completely finishing the vintage. A tradition which has created a small treasure in wine. Contrary to the Tuscan tradition I do not keep Vin Santo, because I do not like sweet wines and so I do not feel the need of keeping them in a sort of “historic archive”. Maybe it’s wrong but my heart beats faster for great reds.
The bottles of Brunello since 1993 are kept in the hermitage at Fattoria del Colle, a square room with vaulted ceiling which is found under the historic cellar. It resembles a bank caveau and is shut with a gate and padlock. The Casato Prime Donne award celebration bottles are kept in a small cell which was once used as a stable for the donkey.
Small, and dark it has an intimate and slightly scary character. For the older
Fattoria del Colle, Casato Prime Donne bottle collection
bottles of Cenerentola Doc Orcia and IGT “Il Drago e le 8 Colombe” we have built a sort of library, with bricks in the last room of the cellar, where up to twenty years ago, we kept the terracotta jars for oil. From those times remains decanter built from terracotta vat where the oil just pressed was divided from the vegetation water because it floated on the surface. In this room Barbara Magnani the cellar master experiments with barriques. These are the last 220 litre barrels left in the cellar after the decision of our consultant winemaker Valérie Lavigne to get rid of them. Now the ageing of our wines takes place in tonneau and in barrels.
Premio Internazionale Vinitaly 2012 Fattoria del Colle Eremo del Brunello
As well as the antique bottles, which have enriched in charm and importance the cellar at Fattoria del Colle, there is a novelty. Under the roof where the Vin Santo ages we show the soil form the fields. The difference between the rocky and clayey soil at Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and the calcareous soil at Fattoria del Colle is very evident and will help explain to guests the two different souls of our production.
Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini