12 bottiglie a casa vostra; le primissime bottiglie di Cenerentola DOC Orcia 2017 e le ultimissime di 2016. Vino per grandi occasioni e momenti romantici. Lampada di Cenerentola per la cantine dei Wine lovers ...
2017: the most Mediterranean harvest ever in Tuscany that has produced very sensual wines that are warm, powerful and able to give their best in youth, Cenerentola Doc Orcia is one of these.
Cenerentola-DOC-Orcia-Sangiovese-and-Foglia-Tonda-grapes-variety
This wine comes from the maddest vintage since the beginning of the century: at the end of April there was a spring frost that hit the whole of Europe. Our hills remained miraculously unharmed while in Spain or Sicily the young buds on the vines were burned.
But another danger was in stall: after a winter with few showers an African summer began, that at the beginning of August made the thermometers rise to 40°C. Bushes, hedges, streams without water and hoards of thirsty wild boar that ate the grapes still unripe to quench their thirst.
Those, who like us, practice an organic regime in agriculture, have had less problems of hydro stress in the vineyards because the vines, solicited to react spontaneously to the climate, have maintained an equilibrium abandoning part of the clusters that remained green and were later removed.
At the end the 2017 harvest has been the scarcest ever.
While the Sangiovese, main Tuscan variety, has suffered thirst and heat, the Foglia Tonda a local rare variety, carried out one of its best performances.
However there is a reason for this funny name, it is the similarity between the Cinderella fairytale and the Orcia Doc wine region. This appellation was born in 2000 among the high hills between the Brunello di Montalcino and Nobile di Montalcino wine regions. It would seem an adverse situation with two stepsisters who are older and more famous and who get invited to royal banquets, while the young Orcia DOC gets ignored. But this situation is one that also incites to combactivity and creativity.
So , in conclusion, with a lot of courage and a pinch of magic the Doc Orcia region challenges the sisters.
2019 and 2020 grape harvest, like identical twins, but different: both worthy of the highest rating but also to be understood in their diversity like 2015 – 2016
Brunello-2020-Grape-Harvest-Casato-Prime-Donne-the-two-young-winemakers-Giada-and-Sabrina
by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
It is always difficult to shine next to a great star: it will be difficult for those running 100 meters after Usain Bolt, it has been difficult for all mathematicians after Albert Einstein and it is difficult for all entrepreneurs comparing with Jeff Bezos from Amazon.
It will be the same for the 2020 vintage. It cannot shine after a masterpiece of a vintage like 2019 even though it is one of the best vintages picked during the last 20 years, without doubt worthy of the 5 stars given to the best vintages in Montalcino.
Let’s go in order, by telling you in detail the harvest in the Covid year. The first with facemasks and the necessity to keep at a distance however had had contact, even indirectly with those found positive. It has been terrible to say to two grape pickers to because their kids class was in quarantine <<go home and you can’t come back until you have a negative swab>> and it has been difficult to say to our consultant wine maker Valérie Lavigne << if you cannot have a swab done before leaving France you must renounce in coming>>. The risk of contagion has created as lot of worry, many problems and however a much less joyous atmosphere than usual.
2020-Grape-Harvest-Montalcino-Casato-Prime-Donne-Violante-and-Enrico
There has been a frost during the budding (18-23) at the end of March. To begin with the vineyards seemed unharmed but then we saw that the grapes were decidedly less than usual.
The winter has been very mild and dry. In spring we underwent an attack of powdery mildew in the Fattoria del Colle vineyards and the tractor drivers had to get up really early to spray the vineyards with sulphur before dawn.
In June finally the rainfalls arrived, a really rainy month. The torrid summer began halfway through July and lasted until halfway through September practically without rain except for a nice rainfall at the end of August. Luckily the difference in day and night temperatures has always been great.
The veraison took place at the end of July and the last phase of the grape ripening took place in the heat, especially in September when the daytime temperatures stayed over 32°C. The vineyards were not de-leafed so as to protect the grapes from the sun that did however do some harm.
The problem has been that the rainfall arrived exactly during harvest time and the constant risk of rain forced the grape pickers to an accelerated job, with great anxiety and an occasional prayer.
Does the vineyard have “nutritional disorders” such as anorexia or bulimia? No, but it does have something similar and an Australian app helps grape growers keep it healthy
Vineyard’s nutrition – Montalcino – Casato Prime Donne
by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
I heard talk about the “humanized” approach for the first time in the Bordeaux University, about twenty years ago, when the lesson regarding the summer pruning of the vine referred to “the vine sexuality”. In fact it did regard the intervention of man on the equilibrium between the grape grower’s project, who wants to produce grapes for wine, and that of the vine, who wants to reproduce itself.
Suzy Rogiers – Vineyards nutrition and artificial intelligence
In this case the Wine Australia and the Charles Sturt University have gone even further and have forced the National Wine and Grape Industry Center (NWGIC) researchers to create an app for Smartphone to manage the vineyard’s nutritional disorders as if it were a human being. What is curious is that for both man and the vineyard the nutritional problems come from the wrong approach by “parents”. It seems a paradox but the Australian method to the managing of the vineyard helps us to rethink, in a more general way, all of our behaviours, in life like in the wine enterprises. Often grape growers in fact over feed their vines and they mistake the vigour for wellbeing of the plants, just like some mums fill their kids with love by piling their plate until they get obese.
3 historic 5-star vintages of Brunello Riserva 2004, 2007 and 2012 with two bottles of each in a wooden case, together with 6 crystal Riedel glasses invented to exalt them...
This is the first organic Chianti Superiore made at Fattoria del Colle. It is enriched with aromas thanks to the cold nights and hot days in September.
Chianti Superiore 2018 is a family wine, hence a wine that is born in Fattoria del Colle, that was founded in 1592 by Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s ancestors. This estate has a history more than 400 year old, in the vineyard and in the wines.
Chianti Superiore Bio 2018
This region in Southern Tuscany, at 404 m above sea level, in a territory particularly apt for the production of red wines. It borders with the Chianti Classico, Brunello and Vino Nobile wine regions. The soils are of neo-quaternary origin composed of sand and marine clays. These vineyards were planted on the top of the hills, because well ventilated and well exposed to the sun.
The 2018 vintage was a scarce one because of the frost during the previous year and because of the rainfalls that during the spring disturbed the flowering. In the month of May the showers were particularly frequent and there was also a cloudburst that flooded the winery.
Luckily in September the climate was ideal for the production of great wines, with its cold nights and sunny days, so the grapes size was reduced, and as a result increased the synthesis of the perfumes of the grapes and finally in the cellar we received sound and ripe clusters with a good content of extractable polyphenols
2018 harvest at Fattoria del Colle
The Chianti Superiore is a type of Chianti of higher level, because of the quality of the wine and because of the provenance of the grapes from vineyards that do not produce much.
Type: dry red.
Production area: Trequanda, Toscana, Fattoria del Colle.
Vintage characteristics: the spring was very rainy; the summer was cool with frequent storms. The veraison concluded within the month of August. September was dry with great diurnal temperature variation.
3 bottles of Chianti Superiore DOCG and 3 bottles of Rosato IGT Toscana 2018 certified BIO (organic) delivered directly to your home with a little shipping cost
Let us continue to drink great wines together. For online aperitifs with friends, or to emphasize a dish after spending time in the kitchen, transforming a regular meal into special moment, as if in a starred restaurant!
Chianti Superiore DOCG 2018 Rosa di Tetto 2018 Toscana Italy Donatella Cinelli Colombini
In just a few days the currier will bring 6 very special bottles, right to your front door.
We are proposing two wines in “limited edition” few bottles of what in the USA they call “family wines”. Two special wines: Chianti Superiore 2018 DOCG is a preview; you will taste it before anybody else. It is a BIO certified wine (organic) the same as Rosato IGT Toscana that is quite trendy at the moment. A wine to be consumed cool with cheeses and cold cuts giving a special touch to your aperitif or your brunch.
THREE 0,75 cl BOTTLES of Chianti Superiore DOCG 2018 – THREE 0,75 cl BOTTLES OF IGT Toscana Rosa di Tetto 2018
The special price reserved for you until April 9th is
39,50€ for Club members
44,90 € for those not yet members of the Club
Shipping in Italy costs 16,00 €
We accept bank draft payments or Visa or MasterCard
vino@cinellicolombini.it
This offer finishes April 9th 2020
The nature of the soil gives a specific sensory character to the wine, so understanding the soil is crucial to understand the most variable vine: Sangiovese. Today we talk about the land of Sangiovese: Chianti Classico and Montalcino
by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
It is well known that Sangiovese has the highest number of clones (108) and the greatest variability. In short, it is a mutant grape variety which is best expressed in two areas: Chianti Classico and Montalcino.
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.
A powerful Sangiovese , extremely pleasant , that in the Rosso di Montalcino expresses at its best the characters of a hot years such as 2017 and the extraordinary Brunello terroir
2017 in the vineyards is explained in the words of the Divina Commedia by Dante << guarda il calor del sol che si fa vino>> (Canto 25 of Purgatory). Poetic words that describe a very hot summer where the vines suffered for the draught for month and the grape growers tilled the land to impede that the soil hardened.
A vintage, 2017, that expresses itself at its best in young wines, such as the Rosso di Montalcino, and has among its strong points the Mediterranean vigour and pleasantness. It is in other words a raring, hot, powerful and velvety Sangiovese.
Montalcino is, in the world, the territory where Sangiovese expresses itself at its best. An extraordinary territory that makes something extremely difficult happen, in fact it makes it even seem easy: to produce with the same grapes and from the same vines, young wines that are extremely pleasant and elegant, like Rosso di Montalcino, and super premium wines apt for long ageing such as Brunello.
Rosso -di- Montalcino- 2017- Sangiovese -harvest
In Europe, the 2017 vintage will be remembered as the scarcest and most troublesome of the last 50 years because of a frost at the end of April, and because of a dry and torrid summer, and finally because of the hailstorm in September. A wild climatic situation that miraculously missed Montalcino where the only difference with other vintages was the beginning of the harvest within the first 15 days of September.
Donatella Cinelli Colombini presents her Rosa di tetto 2018 IGT Toscana 2018 for the first time BIO, organic, and for the first time in a “fine wine” version
first harvest with organic certification for Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s wineries and first “Rosa di Tetto” rosé BIO. Our vineyards have always been cultivated with manual care but since 2014 we have begun to follow the protocols and we have begun to be checked on by an external entity that allowed us to obtain the certification and consequently the green leaf, symbol of an organic winery, on the label.
At Fattoria del Colle the production of rosé began more than 30 years ago with the name “Aqua di Tetto”. When Donatella Cinelli Colombini received from her father the farm she decided to change the name because the previous one led to imagine a red wine that had been watered down.
2018-sangiovese-harvest-Fattoria-del-Colle-Toscana
She chose Rosa di Tetto because it recalls the first name buy is also inspired by the climbing roses that grow on the facade of the 16th century villa so high that they get under the roof tiles.
The rosé Rosa di Tetto is produced in limited series of 2,500 bottles obtained through Sangiovese grapes from the vineyards at Fattoria del Colle that were picked and vinified on the estate. So this is a “family wine” or as we would say in Tuscany , “Vino di Fattoria”.
2016, another 5 star vintage, and finally one that is perfect for wines apt for long ageing. Il Drago e le 8 Colombe an auteur bottle for great wine lovers
Il-Drago-e-le-8-Colombe 2016
In 2016 the vegetative cycle of the vines was very very long: the vines budded 15 days sooner than usual, but the harvest took place in October, as was usual traditionally. This was because the ripening of the grapes was gradual and slow: something rare during this era of climatic changes that gave great joy to the producers. In fact the ripening of the grape skin (poliphenolic) and that of the pulp (technological) went hand in hand and this circumstance always produces extremely elegant wines.
This wine was born to celebrate the only man in Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s wineries, my husband Carlo Gardini. These wineries are the first in Italy to be all female staffed. But Carlo is however always present with his advice and his passion for great red wines, that sometimes, are completely different to those that I love.
“Il Drago e le 8 Colombe” was originally “Il Drago e le 7 Colombe” and was renamed with the arrival of our consultant wine maker Valérie Lavigne. On that occasion the blend too was changed, today it is a 60% Sangiovese 20% Merlot and 20% Sagrantino. Three varieties that give different characteristic to the wine: the Sangiovese gives elegance, the Merlot pleasantness, and the Sagrantino increases the structure. All the grapes have been grown on the state, following the organic regime, and are picked, vinified and aged in barrel separately to be assembled before bottling.
This is a small production between 8,000-16,000 bottles per year, a masterpiece. Often this type of wine is called Super Tuscan because although it doesn’t belong to any appellation is aims at high quality, even though with freedom with respect to the rules that are enforced by the DOC appellations. For this reason Donatella Cinelli Colombini has inserted among the varieties for the Il Drago e Le 8 Colombe the Sagrantino, typical variety used in Umbria, its administrative boundary lines, end just about 10 km from the Fattoria del Colle vineyards.
2013 was a vintage that started low key, and that later convinced experts and consumers all over the world. In the Riserva versions it aims to get to the top of the ratings
2013 harvest Annibale the dog
This had already happened in the past when the 2009 bettered all expectations and so became one of the cult vintages for Brunello.
The 2013 vintage had a rainy winter and a cool summer, a typical climate for long lasting and important Brunello. Shortly after the harvest the wine did not seem so special but after the time spent in barrel it finally revealed its extraordinary elegance.
To understand what happened let me tell you how the stars get awarded to Brunello vintages. Long ago the evaluation of vintages was done by expert wine journalists but in 1992 the Consorzio del Brunello decided to do it itself, with rigorous and above all objective criteria. From that moment onwards, every year, its asks the Montalcino wineries, for a sample of the new vintage just born. It has all samples analysed and then reunites a panel of technicians made up of the best wine makers. Their opinion is expressed in stars: 1 star for a bad year, 5 stars for the excellent ones.
During the presentation of the new Brunello, half way through February, the President of the Consorzio reveals the number of stars that have been attributed to the new vintage. This rating is portrayed on a ceramic tile positioned, each year, on the facade of the Old Town Hall in Montalcino and also on our fermentation room facade at Casato Prime Donne.
Harvest-Brunello-2013-sorting-table
This method has been criticized during past years; the amount of 5 stars vintages has increased greatly with the climate changes, and some vintages, especially after barrel ageing, reveal qualities that are much
superior to the expectations.
This is exactly the case of the 2013 vintage, that obtained at the time just 4 stars. But after its barrel ageing it has been judged, by many of the best tasters, as superior to the 2012, that in fact had had a better rating.
2016 old style harvest that excites wines lovers and puts a crown on the Cenerentola DOC Orcia label
A vintage this 2016 to be framed: depth, complexity, and finesse, and longevity, characteristics that only a slow ripening of the grapes can give to a wine.
The Sangiovese, main variety used in Cenerentola DOC Orcia (together with Foglia Tonda), produces grapes that are meteoropathic, so can go mad and ruin if the climate is adverse. Its skin is made up of few layers of cells so it needs the help of the sun to express itself at its best. For this reason in the high hills of Southern Toscana, where the climate is dry but cool, Sangiovese has its ideal habitat and reached levels of excellence impossible elsewhere in the world.
There were surprises regarding the harvest date too: the vines had sprouted a good 15 days earlier than usual, and everyone, including us, thought that the harvest would have been precocious one. On the contrary already when the veraison happened (changing of the colour of the grapes from green to blue) the calendar of the vegetation cycle was already aligned with the traditional one, then the ripening proceeded regularly and slowly. In 2016 for the first time in a long time, the clusters reached the time of harvest at a snail’s pace with a mass of sugar in the berries growing slower than the poliphenolic ripening, that of the noble substances in the skins. In 2016 the first semester of the year was very rainy, the soil was hydrated in depth creating reserves for the hot months, but also disturbing the flowering to such a point that the number and dimensions of the clusters was drastically reduced. Then a topsy-turvy summer arrived. With hot days –over 35°c- alternated by storms of great violence, and the wine producers have been really scared that the hail would arrive. Those who like us were saved from the calamity, have had one of the best harvest man can remember.
For Valerie Lavigne wine maker of Donatella Cinelli Colombini the autochtonous grape varieties will be the protagonists of the future italian wine ...