casato prime donne in montalcino Tag

VINEYARDS AT CASATO PRIME DONNE (1)

THE SECRETS OF GREAT VITICULTURE, DRAWN FROM THE FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE OF A PRODUCER CRAFTING AN EXCEPTIONAL BRUNELLO BY LETTING THE GRAPES DO THE WORK- EVEN AS THE CLIMATE CHANGES

Sangiovese per il Brunello Donatella Cinelli Colombini Casato Prime Donne Montalcino

Sangiovese for Brunello Donatella Cinelli Colombini Casato Prime Donne Montalcino vineyards

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination

I began managing the vineyards at Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda and Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino in 1998, when my parents gifted me the two estates.

Across the two properties, there were about 25 hectares of old vineyards featuring many dead vines (gaps in the rows) and a multitude of grape varieties and Sangiovese clones—all mixed together and often of poor quality. Unfortunately, it is impossible to restore vineyards in such a state, so I had to uproot and replant them.

I adore centenarian vineyards and envy those who own them. The only old vineyard I managed to save is Sant’Antonio, planted in 1987; it is treated like a relic and tended to with great care… yet it is only forty years old.

I HAVE BEEN PLANTING VINEYARDS FOR 25 YEARS IN THE “GOLDEN CUP” OF BRUNELLO

The remaining vineyards at Casato Prime Donne have been replanted between 2000 and the present day. This process was carried out gradually—planting one or two hectares a year—and relied on a team of excellent vineyard workers led by two extraordinary, passionate “vignerons”: Efisio Luche and Davide Rinaldi. I recall that in 2015, when Denis Dubourdieu—the renowned and formidable professor from the University of Bordeaux’s oenology department—visited us and walked through every single vineyard, he said to Efisio: “Félicitations, vos vignobles sont impeccables.”

Casato Prime Donne is located in the northern Brunello zone, atop a 225-meter hill formed by the fragmentation of the larger Montalcino hill—a process that created the Montosoli rise and, right next to it, our own. In front lies a small valley carved by the Suga stream, which may well have been a river millions of years ago. It is a stunning, cup-shaped area that turns golden yellow after the harvest, thanks to the Sangiovese leaves—a landscape we might well call the “golden cup.”

23 February 2026

WHAT TURNS A GRAPE GROWER INTO A GREAT WINE PRODUCER?

WHERE DO STAR WINE PRODUCERS AND LARGE WINERIES COME FROM? PERSONAL TALENT, INNOVATION, VISION OF FUTURE MARKET TRENDS, OR WHAT?

10 vini italiani-più-amati-Madonna-delle-Grazie-Marroneto

What transforms a grape grower into a great wine producer, Alessandro Mori Il Marroneto

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Casato Prime Donne Montalcino, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda

In Montalcino, as in Barolo, there are many wine producers born into farming families who have become international winemaking stars. I’ve always wondered whether this growth was the result of production spurred by innovation or commercial insight… or whether it arose from the ability to interpret the gifts of the land like a sculptor does with marble.

BEING A GREAT PRODUCERS MEANS PRODUCING GREAT QUALITY OR GREAT NUMBERS

How does the transformation from grape grower to successful entrepreneur happen?

Obviously, the great winemakers—and I’m thinking of people like Bepi Quintarelli, Alessandro Mori from Il Marroneto, or Elena Fucci—raise attention to their territory with their splendid wines, setting an example and opening the market to other producers as well.

Their success seems to be tied to their personal talent and their ability to make it visible.

Then there are the successful producers who transform from grape growers into great entrepreneurs, and this is what I’d like to focus on.

In books, the transformation from artisan to entrepreneur is described as the shift from making things to managing production and planning long-term strategies, “from working in the lab to working on the lab.” Translating this concept to wine, we could say that a wine producer becomes an entrepreneur when he stops thinking only about the vineyard and begins to think in terms of project, market, and value.

5 February 2026

I AM DYSLEXIC

AS A CHILD, I WAS CONSIDERED A LITTLE SLOW, BUT THEN THE BENEFITS OF DYSLEXIA CAME TO THE FORE, TODAY I’M TELLING MY STORY HERE TO ENCOURAGE THOSE LIKE ME. DON’T BE AFRAID

Donatella Cinelli Colombini testimonial della dislessia

Donatella Cinelli Colombini spokesperson for dyslexia

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, wineseacher, Casato Prime Donne Montalcino, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda

Do you know what dyslexia is? It’s a neurodiversity, meaning a different way of processing information, resulting in emotional, sensory, and cognitive perception in relation to the environment that differs from that of “normal” people.

In other words, I and other dyslexics don’t have a deficit, but we are different. My mother was dyslexic, I am, and so is my daughter Violante. Dyslexia is hereditary.

THE PROBLEMS CAUSED BY DYSLEXIA

When I was little, dyslexia wasn’t widely known in Italy, and I was considered a bit stupid because I read and wrote worse than my classmates. With my proverbial tenacity, I began to frantically read two books a week, and this practice helped me enormously in school.

In addition to the well-known difficulty distinguishing left from right, whereby d-b p-q e-a are the same letters for us, dyslexia has other drawbacks: where driving is on the left, we dyslexics become dangerous drivers. We don’t hear the sequence of sounds, so I only understand music after listening to a song dozens of times. But even the sounds within words and the sequence of words are difficult. This is why many dyslexics, and I among them, learn foreign languages with enormous difficulty.

But every cloud has a silver lining: we “neurodiverse” people think dynamically and possess great flexibility, which is invaluable in transforming problems into opportunities. We dyslexics have a broader vision that allows us to understand even highly complex systems and makes us “natural” managers. Creativity, lateral thinking, a vision for the bigger picture, and the ability to make unusual connections—these are the strengths of dyslexics.

29 January 2026