DONATELLA CINELLI COLOMBINI AND DOCTOR WINE DANIELE CERNILLI
92/100 TO BRUNELLO PRIME DONNE IN THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE WINES OF ITALY BY DANIELE CERNILLI DOCTOR WINE,WITH ALSO A STAR FOR DONATELLA’S WINERIES
DanieleCernilli DonatellaCinelliColombini ONAV Congress 2013
By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, #winedestination
I have known Doctor Wine-Daniele Cernilli for almost forty years, when he was a young philosophy professor with a passion for tasting wine and the mission of raising the quality of Italian wineries by forcing them to compare themselves with each other and with the rest of the world.
We respect each other and are fond of each other. I cannot forget his words of comfort after the death of my husband Carlo.However, our sensitivities for wine diverge: Cernilli prefers leading wine makers like Carlo Ferrini, I believe in nature as the absolute protagonist. A distinction that leads to different outcomes especially in style. In fact, those who, like me, pick the grapes before over- ripeness softens the skin, produce more elegant but less powerful wines than those who wait. But I am convinced that this choice maintains a greater imprint of the terroir and the vintage in the wine. I intend to continue along this path: less power and more territoriality because the wine must tell and surprise and not always be the same.
I am grateful to Daniele Cernilli for having included my winery in the Essential Guide of Italian Wines 2025, also assigning it a star. It’s a joy and an honour.
