Brunello di Montalcino Prime Donne 2017
The Brunello Prime Donne 2017 is a small selection of 3.300 bottles, obtained by selecting grapes bunch per bunch in Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s vineyards
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To say that the grapes for this wine were chosen bunch by bunch is perhaps exaggerated but it is very close to the truth. It is an extreme selection, made by hand in a single day, employing over twenty people in the vineyard.
An accuracy that has given rise to an incredibly elegant and harmonious wine.
The Brunello Prime Donne 2017 has a “Mediterranean” character, will give its best as a young man and has the vigour of the hot vintage in which it was born.
BRUNELLO PRIME DONNE 2017
Donatella Cinelli Colombini was much undecided whether to use this Brunello to produce a Riserva or for the Prime Donne Selection. She submitted the question to the four super tasters who make up the tasting panel of Brunello Prime Donne. Due to Covid they could not meet in the cellar, as usual, and therefore they received the samples at home and gave a written response. They are two Masters of Wine, the English Rosemary George and the Swedish Madeleine Stenwreth, the wine shop owner Astrid Schwarz and the Sommelier Daniela Scrobogna. The 4 experts decided that this Brunello was worthy of becoming “Prime Donne selection” and that it represented the territory and the vintage well.
VINTAGE 2017
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2017 was characterized by two climatic events: a frost at the end of April that affected almost the entire European vineyard that miraculously left Montalcino untouched and a very hot summer with 10 consecutive days, in August, with a temperature of 43 ° C. This last event also touched the Brunello vineyard.
The organic cultivation of the vineyards, the green manure, the frequent ploughing and the use of the foliage of the vines to shade the bunches have all contributed enormously to limiting the damage of the heat, demonstrating, once again, the great vocation of the territory of Montalcino and the advantage of respecting nature and limiting human intervention by letting the vines react independently, to climatic difficulties.
PRIME DONNE PROJECT
The Prime Donne Project was born in 1998 when Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s mother gave her the Casato Prime Donne winery to create her own Brunello production. It consists of four parts: the first Italian winery with an entirely female staff, the Brunello selected by a panel of female tasters, the award focused on new models of femininity and the path with quotes by the winners of the award and the works of art by Tuscan artists.
CASATO PRIME DONNE IN MONTALCINO
The Casato Prime Donne is a property of 40 hectares on the North Slope of the Montalcino hill, 230m above the sea on land of Pliocene origin characterized by sands and sea clays. This is the coolest side of the Brunello area where ripening is slower. The building, which houses the barrel area, was built at the end of the sixteenth century by the current owner’s ancestors and has around 17 hectares of vineyards cultivated with Sangiovese.