brunello Tag

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

CAFFE’ IN FORCHETTA, A MONTALCINO DESSERT

This is a delicious dessert born at the beginning of the 20th century in Montalcino. It is called “caffè in forchetta” (coffee with a fork) but, in truth, it is eaten with a spoon

It is a Liberty-style dessert, an era when cafés became an important place in social life. In Montalcino, like in Venice or Turin, the local public places in the centre were re-qualified and enriched with velvet and mirrors so as to be able to welcome the bourgeois clients. These in Montalcino, the city of Brunello, comprised those who were noble, academics, business men, landowners and even a few artists.

CAFFE’ IN FORCHETTA IN MONTALCINO AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20th CENTURY

Caffè in forchetta of Montalcino Tuscany Fattoria del Colle

Montalcino has always, in fact, had a diversified social structure, cultured and open minded. Regardless of this liveliness the lifestyle of the women was controlled and certainly not as casual as in Paris. In particular, women were criticized if they drank coffee, it was considered too audacious. For this reason a cream caramel was invented where to the milk was added to coffee. This way it was possible to serve coffee to the ladies without it seeming so. This dessert was quite a success and was served in all homes, until like everything else it was no longer fashionable. I published a booklet called “66 ricette di cucina montalcinese” where the fine oral Montalcinese gastronomy was transcribed. This brought back into use the caffè in forchetta that is now once again very present in the restaurant menus in the Brunello territory.
Here it is. It is a simple dessert quite apt to sweetly conclude a meal.

1 July 2020

We are open, come and have dinner at Fattoria del Colle

Dining is a cultural experience other than being a great pleasure. At Fattoria del Colle it becomes a melody of flavours, images and great wines

Pears cooked in wine – Fattoria del Colle Restaurant

Donatella Cinelli Colombini has collected recipes from housewives in and around Trequanda even before opening the Fattoria del Colle. For the same reason, she has a vegetable garden with lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes, Aglione … as well as tarragon, and many types of mint, sage and rosemary …

FINE WINES OF CASATO PRIME DONNE AND FROM FATTORIA DEL COLLE

Obviously the strong point of the Fattoria del Colle restaurant is that the wine comes from the two wineries: Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and the same farm where we make the Chianti Superiore, Supertuscan and Doc Orcia Cenerentola, the latter is becoming a real star in the wine world. The wine list is made up of around 15 preferences including a sparkling wine, a white and a rosé. Those who might think that using wine as a restaurant’s key strength, do not consider that the menu has been constructed to exalt the flavours in the glass and that it is possible to change the wine matched to each dish or something really extraordinary, choose a Brunello vertical tasting selecting from 23 vintages and more than 50 labels between Brunello Riserva, Prime Donne selection and regular Brunello.

Farmhouse-in-Tuscany-Restaurant-Fattoria-del-Colle

If the notes from the glass were not to be sufficient, there are always the explanations from the staff or from the chef Alessandro Sironi who is a sommelier.

MENU’ FULL OF HISTORY, TRADITION AND TASTE

The menu concentrates on daily proposals that offer authentic experiences from the Sienese countryside: 6 small servings that alternate bread soups with pinci, noble meats such as Chianina beef, or Cinta Senese pork with vegetables from the vegetable garden, traditional dishes such as the Mantovana, Panforte and pears cooked in wine together with more modern suggestions such as the Semifreddo di Mantovana. Tuscan recipes and ingredients often from farm to table. The list of dishes is a little more austere than previously, but all the same it is able to charm and express the culture of the territory even more than before.

17 June 2020

in Forum: News and lifestyle

Summer weekend among the Tuscan vineyards

Two nights and two dinners at Fattoria del Colle in the most authentic part of Tuscany where there are wide spaces and every detail is studied to give safety and emotions

Fattoria del Colle summer weekends in Tuscany

Come and spend a weekend in the most beautiful countryside on a real four hundred year old farm. Among the vineyards, olive groves and breathtaking views Fattoria del Colle proposes stays in rooms with private bathrooms and in apartments with outdoor private areas equipped for eating out-of-doors. Carefully sanitized inside and out so as to guarantee the safety of the guests. However to avoid possible contamination, daily cleaning is still not supplied, just the delivery of clean linen.

REGENERATE OUT IN THE OPEN, TOURS WITH TASTINGS AND THEMED DINNERS

3 equipped parks where to sunbathe, admire the panorama and enjoy the quiet of the countryside, 1 swimming pool, 3 signposted hiking trails, where one discovers nature, a special trail dedicated to the vine.

15 June 2020

in Forum: News and lifestyle, Vines and wines

DOC ORCIA BIO LEONE ROSSO 2018

The first organic DOC Orcia Bio wine made by Donatella Cinelli Colombini is the Leone Rosso 2018, practically a Supertuscan made with Sangiovese and Merlot

Orcia DOC 2018 Leone Rosso Fattoria del Colle Donatella Cinelli Colombini

A RAMPANT LION AND DONATELLA CINELLI COLOMBINI’S ANCESTORS

The name of the wine and the rampant lion on the label come from Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s ancestors’ coat of arms. This family in 1592 built Fattoria del Colle where this wine is born. This was an old and rich Tuscan family, mostly jurists and philosophers; they were then called Socini or Sozzini. The names of two Socinis, Lelio (1525-1562) and Fausto (1539-1604) are written in philosophy books as they were free thinkers and against the Church and, because of their writings regarding the Trinity dogma. Unfortunately their creed made them famous but also made them poor because they ended up being excommunicated and all their properties confiscated. Fattoria del Colle became once again property of this family only in 1919 when it was bought by Donatella’s grandfather Livio Socini.
Still today the family blazon, the rampant lion, is visible upon the entrances and on the ceilings of the Colle villa.

10 June 2020

Fattoria del Colle new top wine destination

2 new proposals for wine lovers looking for an unusual itinerant tasting or who want to spend a day among vineyards, wines and activities

Agriturismo Fattoria del Colle Restaurant

Itinerant tastings that resemble adventures out to discover vineyards and wines, aromas and tastes, panoramas and historical locations. Also the proposal for a day at Fattoria del Colle to regenerate in a safe place, in contact with nature an able to tell a story centuries old. An itinerary dedicated to vineyards and to the wines they produce. Another activity that proposes an itinerant tasting with a mixture of history, aromas and flavours. A lunch experience to taste different Tuscan cheeses or cold cuts, and on Saturdays the possibility of an excursion to the Brunello di Montalcino winery Casato Prime Donne.

Tours and lunches are organized upon request and must be booked the previous day calling +39 0577 662108 or via email at info@cinellicolombini.it

Fattoria-del-Colle-Trekking in the vineyards

ITINERANT TASTING IN THE VINEYARDS

3 vineyards, 3 grape varieties and 3 wine tastings (h. 12,00 midday from the farm courtyard)

Itinerant tasting of the wines in the organic vineyards with the same variety of grapes are grown: Traminer for the IGT bianco Sanchimento, Foglia Tonda for the Doc Orcia Cenerentola and Sangiovese for the Brunello that is made in Montalcino at Casato Prime Donne visible at a distance. This experience thanks to an expert guide will be a fun discovery of the characteristic of the three varieties and of the vines they produce (15 Euro per person). Lasts about an hour.

ITINERANT TASTING IN GARDENS, VEGETABLE GARDENS, HISTORICAL LOCATIONS AND VINEYARDS

3 wines among history, vineyards, gardens and vegetable gardens (h. 3,00 pm: from the farm courtyard)

Trekking-in-the-vineyards-Toscana-Fattoria-del-Colle

Breathtaking views, the Italian garden at Fattoria del Colle with its paths, the San Clemente chapel built in 1592 with its stories of heretics and Madonnas, the bedroom that once belonged to the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo sovereign of Tuscany and his lover Isabella, the vegetable garden with its oldest and most curious plants like mandrake that has aphrodisiacal properties, wormwood – the green fairy and the pepper tree … An itinerary of aromas, stories and legends that includes also the tasting of 3 wines from Fattoria del Colle (Chianti Superiore DOCG, Doc Orcia Leone Rosso and IGT Il Drago e le 8 Colombe) and a typical Tuscan snack with freshly picked tomatoes from the garden (13 Euro per person). Lasts about one hour.

9 April 2020

in Vines and wines

Brunello 2015 according to Monica Larner

Comments and ratings by Monica Larner for Robert Parker Wine Advocate reward Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s two Brunello 2015 with 94 and 95 /100

Brunello 2015 Donatella Cinelli Colombini 94 and 95/100 from Robert Parker

94/100 from the Brunello and 95/100 for the “Prime Donne” selection, two extraordinary ratings and especially two comments that portray perfectly Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s wines and her choice of style.

Monica Larner is the super taster for Italian wines for Robert Parker – Wine Advocate. This is the wine magazine that since 1978, taste and judges 12.000 wine per year, tasting the best wines the world over and orienting the most important buyers. Since 2013 Monica Larner is the Italian wine reviewer and with the passing of time she has begun to stand out because of her ability as a talent scout that can discover new trend and up and coming denominations. Her writing abilities emerge in articles where she tells of events and people with clarity and depth always with a personal touch

Brunello 2015 Prime Donne Donatella Cinelli Colombini 95/100 from Robert Parker Wine Advocate

WINE ADVOCATE – ROBERT PARKER

Wine Advocate-Robert Parker, recently bought by the Michelin group, those who print the famous red guidebook on restaurants. This is the only wine publication that does not accept advertisements. Rigorous ethical choices that are shared by all collaborators and that Monica Larner has extended also to other areas like in 2013 when she refused to taste the wines made by a producer who had written offensive racist remarks about a black woman.

Monica Larner’s words regarding Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s Brunello are an example of journalistic intelligence and great tasting ability.

17 March 2020

Donatella’s two new young winemakers

Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s female cellar staff increases with the arrival of two young winemakers

Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in southern Chianti, the first in Italy to have an all female staff in Italy, see the arrival of two new entries: Sabrina Buzzolan and Giada Sani.

THE TWO YOUNG WINEMAKERS AT CASATO PRIME DONNE AND FATTORIA DEL COLLE

Donatella Cinelli Colombini’ winemakers Barbara Sabrina and Giada

Two young winemakers who will share the responsibility of producing Brunello, Chianti Superiore and Doc Orcia under the supervision of Barbara Magnani who for the past twenty years has been Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s right arm. In medium -long term the idea is to renew the staff. Though at the moment Donatella and Barbara intend to keep the younger staff under Barbara’s wings to strengthen their abilities and to stimulate the desire to innovate without forgetting tradition and nature. <<An alchemy that requires courage, love of the territory and passion for cellar work>> explains Donatella Cinelli Colombini while presenting the two new arrivals. Both are small and minute, they are different though in aspect and in personality. Giada is Tuscan from Asciano, 10 km away from Fattoria del Colle; she has dark long hair and love tidiness. Sabrina Buzzolan comes from Malo Vicenza; she has blonde curly hair and the skin tone of the women by Tiziano.

SABRINA BUZZOLAN GLOBETROTTER AND WINEMAKER

Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s winemakers Barbara Giada and Sabrina

In their professional journey there are differences too. Sabrina studied at San Michele all’Adige and then in the University in Udine where she got a degree in viticulture and oenology. She began to travel for wine at a very young age with work experience opportunities all over the world. In Antonio T. Palacios Garcìa’ laboratory and then the Erasmus at Universidad de La Rioja.

Harvests in Kooyong Winery in Australia, in France in the Château Guadet, Chateau Puygueraud and in the very famous Chateau Pavie Macquin, followed. Sabrina has also had experiences in Journey’s End in South Africa and in Carrick Wines in New Zealand.

A great formative profile with vast horizon intermingled with period in Italy beginning with a job in the Maculan winery in Breganze up until her arrival at Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s.

Thanks to the languages known Sabrina has paired her role a wine maker in the Montalcino winery Casato Prime Donne with a marketing role. This way she is taking on a profile very close to what Riccardo Cotarella call the winemaker of the future <<who, other than making the wine, knows also how to sell it>>. For this reason she is about to take part in the Wset course and has begun to work side by side with Violante Gardini the estate export manager at wine fairs.

11 March 2020

in Farm experiences, Forum: News and lifestyle

Donatella Cinelli Colombini remembers Federico Fellini

Three little personal episodes that portray Federico Fellini. The man, his need for simplicity, his free and eccentric his great kindness

Federico Fellini with
his wife and the Guidotti and Cinelli Colombini families

My memories go back to the years between 1975 and 1985; I was a young woman and was living between Montalcino and Siena. This was a very middle class existence and however decidedly provincial. I was used to meeting with intellectual and famous people because my family had always associated with that type of person, but Federico Fellini was surely out of range

That man was quite a myth. A worldwide recognized genius with 5 Oscars. His fame was so big that it would have daunted even those more equipped than I. In front of him I was consequently very nervous. My hands were sweaty I was unable to sit still and most of all I was able only to say a few polite sentences but was unable to have a proper conversation. I thought I didn’t have anything that would be interesting to say. What a shame!!

Federico Fellini and his wife Giulietta Masina would come to Tuscany for the Chianciano thermal waters. From there they would come to Montalcino for a break during the sessions, and maybe even for a gluttonous escape. Often they would come with Mario Guidotti or sometimes with the young Fabio Carlesi.

FEDERICO FELLINI AND GIULIETTA MASINA IN MONTALCINO

Federico Fellini at Fattoria dei Barbi in Montalcino

Fellini was always untidy as though he hated to have his clothes ironed. His wife on the other hand was always impeccable with her hair done and creaseless clothes. The Maestro did not speak much but would look around with curiosity and was very interested in wine. He loved good food so my mother lured him with roasted meats and Brunello.

FELLINI’S ECCENTRICITY AND KINDNESS

This man was an eccentric in such a spontaneous way to leave one speechless. Once we had organized a dinner for him in the garden but it was cold. So we proposed different things for him to put on to keep warm, and he chose a horrible red woollen shawl with long fringes. It would have been tasteless on any women but he wore it and enjoyed our embarrassment.

On another occasion he arrived unexpectedly and I was home with a house full of friends for party. Among these were Azelia Batazzi and her boyfriend Franco Becci who reminded me of the episode a short while ago. The sudden arrival of the maestro embarrassed me and not being able to organize something exclusively for him I decided to add him to the group, << can I ask Federico Fellini to join you?>> you I asked the group. They were enthusiastic about this unexpected meeting but were unable to speak to him while e savoured his prosciutto and bread.

24 February 2020

in Forum: News and lifestyle, Vines and wines

Benvenuto Brunello a 28 year old success

Triumphal edition of Benvenuto Brunello with the 5 stars of the super vintage 2019, Vittorio Sgarbi, the president of the coni Malagò and an assault of wine lovers. Today we talk about Benvenuto Brunello and a 28 year old success ...

17 February 2020

Easter at Fattoria del Colle

From the Sacredness of the abbeys to the sin of gluttony, while all around the most beautiful countryside in the world is reborn with the news spring and so Easter at Fattoria del Colle is even more beautiful

EASTER WEEKEND AT FATTORIA DEL COLLE WITH A VIEW

Easter at Fattoria del Colle

Fattoria del Colle (write to holiday@cinellicolombini.it for the program) is an extraordinary place. It is basically a small hamlet built at the end of the 16^th century. Here there is an aristocratic villa, chapel, parks, and old farmhouses transformed into lodgings for visitors, restaurants and wellness area. Above all at Easter we are offering guests the possibility to really experience the authentic and old Tuscany . We propose old recipes such as corolli and schiacciate or l’acqua cotta pasqualina,… guided tours in the Brunello and Orcia Doc-Chianti Superiore wineries , brief cookery lessons and itinerant or vertical wine tastings to understand the magical longevity of the Montalcino wines.

SURROUNDING THE FATTORIA DEL COLLE ESTATE ABBEYS AND CITIES OF ART

Easter at Fattoria del Colle Vinotherapy

Surrounding the farm, a landscape that has remained miraculously untouched for. A short distance away are the great cities of art and the great abbeys. Just 12 km away the Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, 35 km distant is the Abbey of Sant’Antimo in Montalcino and just over an hour away the Abbazia di San Francesco in Assisi. In a 40 km radius one finds Cortona, Montepulciano, Pienza, San Quirico-Bagno Vignoni, Montalcino, Buonconvento and Lucignano.

This is a fairy tale land full of hiking trails regenerating for the mind and body, using the “ landscape therapy” to find balance between us and nature. Trails that allow your four legged friends to run free.

27 January 2020

in Forum: News and lifestyle

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Music and wine: How sounds make you sell more

Music and wine: How sounds make you sell more

Among the senses the strongest is sight but also hearing has a decisive influence on taste and even on the purchase of wine with the “Lafite effect”. Music and wine: How sounds make you sell more

Refined music drives you to buy expensive wines, relaxing music decreases the frustration of those queuing in front of the register, whereas a very well-known music distracts you from buying.

So, the rhythm accelerates consumer movements between the shelves and decreases sales. Here, in a nutshell, how sounds can change the attitude of wine lovers inside a wine bar or in the shop of the cellar.
That’s why spreading the sounds of an opera helps an Italian winery to sell more and more expensive wines.

THE NEUROMARKETING OF VINCENZO RUSSO AND THE USE OF MUSIC TO SELL WINE

Professor Vincenzo Russo, the most experienced Italian neuromarketing expert, teaches us, through Trebicchieri – economic weekly by Gambero Rosso, how sounds influence the purchase of wine.

It should be assumed that hearing has an “adaptive function” because it is closely connected with three parts of the brain. We have the limbic system in which emotions reside, the prefrontal Cortex that makes us feel pleasure and motor Cortex that, as the name says, commands movement. The first two are the real pleasure centers in all of us, in fact they are the parts of our brain that react “euphorically” when we eat food that we like, and consequently when we have sex or we use drugs.

20 January 2020

in Vines and wines

Brunello Prime Donne: story of a challenge

Donatella Cinelli Colombini had just started designing the company that bears her name when she realized that women managers and consumers counted for nothing. Brunello Prime Donne: story of a challenge

Brunello-Prime-Donne-2015-storia-di-una-sfida

Brunello di Montalcino Prime Donne is very traditional in style, produced in a small exclusive selection.
It owes its exceptionality to the grapes of Sangiovese from which it is born. The small size of the bunches and grapes allow it to combine longevity, an extraordinary elegance and a surprising pleasure. The solid acidic and tannic structure is in fact barely perceptible thanks to a perfect harmony.

HISTORY OF A CHALLENGE: BRUNELLO PRIME DONNE

Brunello Prime Donne selection was produced for the first time with the 1993 vintage.
Donatella Cinelli Colombini had just begun to design the company that bears her name and that is characterized by the two wineries– Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda – with an entirely female staff. The attention to the role of women in wine led Donatella to observe that wine critics and curators of the Italian wine guides were, in 1998, all men.

She decided to reaffirm the importance of women’s taste in the choice of wine by creating the first Brunello selected from a feminine and international panel. The first group consisted of 4 tasters, the English Master of Wine Maureen Ashley, the German wine maker Astrid Schwarz, one of the best Italian sommeliers Daniela Scrobogna and the Italian-american Pr Marina Thompson.

Over the years, the group has changed to become the current one composed of two Masters of Wine, the English Rosemary George and the Swedish Madeleine Stenwreth, as well as Astrid Schwarz and Daniela Scrobogna.

1 January 2020

in Forum: News and lifestyle

Brunello 2015 Donatella Cinelli Colombini

A huge five-star vintage of Brunello that began to be celebrated even before entering the market and combines power, elegance and longevity

Casato Prime Donne Montalcino Sangiovese harvest

The climatic trend shows the typical characteristics of the best Brunello with rainy winter and spring that have hydrated the soil, very hot July that has blocked a vegetative development determining a reduced size of the grapes, August with thunderstorms alternating with hot days, September with very strong thermal variation between night and day that have favoured the synthesis of perfumes.

A script that repeats itself for all the great vintages of Brunello and seems to show that global warming is an authentic luck for the Montalcino vineyard because it multiplies the five-star vintages and raises the quality level to highs never reached in the past.

29 November 2019

in Vines and wines