Trequanda Tag

EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL FROM FATTORIA DEL COLLE (1)

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THOSE WHO LOVE EVO OIL AND WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE QUALITY, THE ORCIAIA PROJECT AND THE VARIETIES WE PRODUCE

Olive correggiolo Toscana Fattoria del Colle

Correggiolo olives Toscana Fattoria del Colle

by Alessia Bianchi, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda, winedestination, Casato Prime Donne Montalcino, Donatella Cinelli Colombini

What determines the quality of extra virgin olive oil? It depends almost equally on nature and man. The terroir (soil and microclimate) determines the quality of the oil by 50%, the cultivar (i.e., its cultivation and harvesting method) by 25%, and finally, the mill and storage methods by 25%.

The Trequanda area and its olive oil production have been among the most renowned and appreciated for centuries. It is a small territory with abundant calcareous soils, its altitude is over 400 meters, its climate is breezy, and its distance from the sea means olive fly rarely reaches it. This area is particularly suited to olive cultivation, and the oil produced here is of the highest quality. Our production is entirely organic. Fattoria del Colle has 6 hectares of olive groves with approximately 1,600 trees grown in VASE (vase-trained). The olive varieties are Frantoio-Correggiolo, Moraiolo, and a few Olivastra.

The olives are hand-picked in October and November while still green. They are then stored in perforated crates and transported to nearby mills. Since 2025, we have been researching and differentiating the pressing process at three different mills in the area, with the aim of increasing the quality and accentuating the oil’s distinctive characteristics

FATTORIA DEL COLLE ORCIAIA PROJECT

The new oil storage room was created inside two wine vats from the early 20th century. Here we placed the ancient terracotta jars produced in Petroio, a few kilometres from Fattoria del Colle, a few centuries ago. The project involves returning to storing oil in the ancient terracotta jars, as was historically done in our countryside. Some of them have already been restored. The work was long and complicated because it involved both the internal lining and the connection to the nitrogen distribution system to preserve the quality of the oil. In fact, the oil must be stored in washable containers and without contact with oxygen to prevent oxidation.

8 January 2026

CENERENTOLA ORCIA DOC RISERVA 2020-ORGANIC

A SERIES OF ONLY 200 NUMBERED MAGNUM BOTTLES FOR DONATELLA CINELLI COLOMBINI’S FIRST ORCIA DOC RISERVA. FOR WINE LOVERS LOOKING FOR EXCLUSIVENESS.

Sangiovese harvest 2020

The very small production run limits this wine’s audience to connoisseurs seeking exclusive bottles. In short, it’s a rare gem.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for over a year,” said Donatella Cinelli Colombini, without hiding her affection for the Cenerentola wine, which she considers one of the greatest successes of her professional life. “I believed in the native Foglia Tonda grape variety when it was on the verge of extinction, and I followed step by step the research for the right way to grow, harvest, and age it. I found winemakers who love it as much as I do—Valérie Lavigne and Barbara Magnani—and I made the Cenerentola DOC Orcia wine a true princess of winemaking,” she says, referring to the international ratings that award it scores between 91 and 94 out of 100.

“Producing an Orcia Riserva means showcasing Cenerentola’s excellent aging potential. The Sangiovese and Foglia Tonda grape varieties are genetically father and son. The former gives the wine elegance, the latter power. In the Fattoria del Colle terroir, at 400 meters above sea level, they find a particularly favourable habitat, producing elegant, powerful, velvety, and wines for cellaring.”

DOC ORCIA CENERENTOLA 2020 FROM FAIRY TALE TO WINE

Each magnum bottle will come in a white “royal case” with gold lettering that recalls the fairy tale from which the wine’s name originates. Indeed, Cinderella is a fairy tale transformed into wine. The Orcia DOC, to which it belongs, was created on February 14, 2000, nestled between the territories of its two more famous “sister” wines: Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. With courage, tenacity, and talent, the young appellation is establishing itself, and wines like Cenerentola are already exported to over 20 foreign markets.

2 December 2025

OFFER: NEW OLIVE OIL FOR YOU!

The new offer includes a blend of EVO oil and two single-cultivar varieties from Fattoria del Colle, delivered directly to your door for tasty and healthy dishes for €179.00.

You’ll receive four bottles of 0.75L organic EVO oil 2025, and two bottles each of 0.5L organic EVO oil 2025 Correggiolo and Moraiolo. Freshly pressed oil with its intense aroma and vibrant flavour, delivered directly from the mill to your table.

Fattoria del Colle is located in Trequanda, one of the best areas in Tuscany and the world for producing extra virgin olive oil thanks to its sandy soil, its remote location from the sea, and its altitude of over 400 meters, which protects it from olive fruit flies. The farm has 6 hectares of organic olive groves and sells exclusively its own oil. The olives are hand-harvested between October and November and pressed at the Oliviera Sant’Angelo, 10 km from the farm, and at the Frantoio di Montalcino.

🎁 For those who take advantage of this offer, a video with the “Guide to tasting EVO oil”!

6 November 2025

in Vines and wines

CHIANTI SUPERIORE DOCG 2024 FATTORIA DEL COLLE

FOR DONATELLA CINELLI COLOMBINI THE 2024 HARVEST WAS AN ABUNDANT ONE WITH AN EXTRAORDINARILY FAVOURABLE FINISH THANKS TO THE SHOWERS IN SEPTEMBER.

At the end of August, after 60 consecutive days of scorching heat, the vines were at a standstill, and Donatella Cinelli Colombini was very worried. Then the weather changed, with heavy thunderstorms and a drastic drop in temperatures, dropping to 10°C at night.

These were ideal conditions for grape ripening, skin softening, and the synthesis of aromas.

The harvest was carefully prepared, leaf-pulling and removing excess bunches from the vines.

The harvest calendar was then planned like a military operation, monitoring the weather forecast, analysing the grapes, and tasting them to position machines and workers on the best day for each vineyard or portion of the vineyard.

A planning that called for very long days and work even on holidays, but the result was excellent.

14 August 2025

EXTRAVIRGIN OLIVE OIL: TRUE AND IMPORTED

ONLY 28% OF THE EXTRA VIRGIN OIL SOLD IN ITALY IS PRODUCED IN OUR COUNTRY. OUT OF 900 THOUSAND TONS OF CONSUMPTION AND EXPORT OF EVO OIL, 600 THOUSAND ARE IMPORTED

Solo il 28% dell'extravergine consumato o esportato dall'Italia è veramente italiano

Only 28% of EVO oil consumed o exported from Italy is really Italian

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Casato Prime Donne

The data on EVO oil are impressive and reveal a bleak panorama. On one side, the Apulian olive groves destroyed by Xylella and the hilly ones abandoned due to lack of manpower. On the other side, a market unwilling to pay remunerative prices for Italian extra virgin olive oil made to the highest standards while the shop shelves are full of low-priced extra virgin olive oil from intensive olive groves in foreign countries.

The RTO Telematic Oil Registers show a stock of 190 thousand tons consisting of 71% EVO oil which is increasingly less Italian.

The Italian EVO oil production crisis does not seem to be stopping: plant diseases, adverse climate, abandonment of olive groves… the reasons are numerous but the results are devastating.

OUR NATIONAL PRODUCTION OF EVO OIL IS 28% OF WHAT WE NEED

Even the Italian olive harvest last autumn marked a drop of 90 thousand tons compared to the previous year. The production deficit is increasingly marked: we produce barely 240 thousand tons, that is 28% of what we need. Every year we need 850-900 thousand tons of which 550 for domestic consumption and 350 thousand tons for export. For this reason, agri-food industrialists source from Tunisia, Spain, Greece and other countries. Puglia in the South and Umbria in the Center are the nerve centres of storage.

26 June 2025

Super offer with Rosa di Tetto 2024 and Brunello 2020!

Do you want to receive this offer made of 100% Sangiovese wines at €154.90 directly at home?

Dear friends, we have prepared for you an unmissable opportunity for true Sangiovese lovers! Two masterpieces from amazing vintages. The Rosa di Tetto IGT Toscana 2024, in preview, and the Brunello DOCG 2020.

🎁 together with the bottles you will find: two blue shopper bags, two sheets of tissue paper (to give a touch of elegance to a gift you will give to your friends) and the package sealer

What’s special about this offer?

This is a special opportunity to receive 2 different expressions of Sangiovese from the Donatella Cinelli Colombini farms. For the first time, part of the grapes used for the Rosa di Tetto 2024 come from the Casato Prime Donne vineyards in Montalcino. Donatella’s vineyards are grown organically and with great commitment.

🍇 Offer of the Month – For Members of Donatella’s Club

3 bottles 0.75L Rosa di Tetto IGT Toscana 2024

3 bottles 0.75L Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2020

two blue shopper bags, two sheets of tissue paper and two package sealers, all with the logo of the Donatella Cinelli Colombini wineries

🎯 Special price: €154.90 (instead of €184.20)

🚚 €10 discount on shipping

💡 Want to double?

12 bottles for €289.00 (instead of €368.40) with the same advantage on shipping.

12 June 2025

ROSA DI TETTO 2024 IGT TOSCANA ROSATO BIOLOGICO-ORGANIC

ROSA DI TETTO 2024 MARKS A RETURN TO THE OLDEST TUSCAN TRADITION OF ROSE’ WINE, THAT OF THE COLOURFUL WINES THAT FARMERS MADE IN SECRET

Rosé wines intense enough to accompany the entire meal and soft enough to be drunk cold.

Fattoria del Colle has been producing rosé wines for over forty years but in 2024, for the first time, part of the grapes for this wine come from the Montalcino vineyards of Casato Prime Donne. A circumstance that gives greater structure to the Rosa di Tetto.

ROSA DI TETTO IGT TOSCANA

The choice to produce a more structured rosé stems from the international success of this type and the demand for rosés with greater personality and aging capacity. A change that coincided with a return to the origins, inspired by the “acquati” produced by Tuscan farmers since time immemorial. Those of a century ago were fragrant but poor-quality rosés obtained by stealing a part of the must at the beginning of fermentation or by refermenting the marc. They were therefore poor wines.

30 May 2025

UPGRADE OF A CORNER OF FATTORIA DEL COLLE

DONATELLA CINELLI COLOMBINI GIVES IN TO GLOBAL WARMING AND PUTS AIR CONDITIONING IN THE ROOMS AND APARTMENTS THAT RESEMBLE THE HOUSES OF TUSCAN GRANDPARENTS

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

The backs of Tuscan farms were traditionally used for artisanal activities: the blacksmith, the oil mill, the laundry… Fattoria del Colle is no exception and on the ground floor, behind the sixteenth-century villa, it had the olive grove, the workshop and the wagon shed and the wash houses. It seems like a more modest part compared to the facades but it is not.

28 May 2025

CENERENTOLA ORCIA DOC 2021 BIO

THIRD GREAT VINTAGE IN SUCCESSION, 2021 IS CHARACTERIZED BY A SHORTAGE OF GRAPES CAUSED BY A SPRING FROST AND A SLOW RIPENING

2019, 2020 and 2021 are three very different vintages but of great quality. They show how global warming favours the vineyards of southern Tuscany despite the excessive heat and cold, drought and monsoon storms that characterize the new climate.

In fact, 2021 had started badly with a spring frost that, fortunately, only grazed the Fattoria del Colle but caused a drastic drop in temperatures preventing the birth of new shoots. There were therefore about 20 days of distance between the first leaves born at the beginning of April and those at the end of the month. The frost and the three summer months without rain produced a drastic decline in the bunches and the size of the grapes that, at harvest, resembled Pinot Noir more than Sangiovese. A cool September that became cold at night, offered the ideal conditions for a slow and regular ripening of the grapes. The result is a wine that combines power, freshness and longevity.

16 May 2025

SANCHIMENTO IGT TOSCANA WHITE 2024 BIO-ORGANIC

2024 ABUNDANT AND QUALITATIVE HARVEST IN WHICH THE TRAMINER GRAPES FOR SANCHIMENTO WERE VINIFIED IN STEEL, IN TERRACOTTA AMPHORA AND IN CLAYVER CERAMIC

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini #winedestination

SANCHIMENTO 2024 A SUPERTUSCAN FROM ORGANIC AND TOURISTIC VINEYARDS

Sanchimento is obtained from organic grapes from the small vineyard around the chapel of the Fattoria del Colle dedicated to San Clemente or Chimento as the saint himself was called in medieval times. The wine therefore takes its name from the small sixteenth-century church. Both the chapel and the adjacent vineyard are open to tourists, in fact the vineyard of Traminer grapes used for the Sanchimento wine is the starting point for a trail in the vineyards that leads visitors to discover all the grape varieties grown at the Fattoria del Colle through the use of signs and QR codes.

THE PARTICULAR VINIFICATION FOR SANCHIMENTO

The cellar workers led by the oenologist Barbara Magnani have developed a very particular process for the Sanchimento IGT Toscana white. An unprecedented method that manages to enhance the characteristics of the grape variety, increase the complexity of the wine and its distinctive characteristics.

10 April 2025

TOP offer with the Supertuscan Il Drago e le 8 Colombe

Do you want to receive this vertical of Il Drago e le 8 Colombe directly at your home for €159.00?

Dear friends, we have prepared an unmissable opportunity for you! Three vintages of Il Drago e le 8 Colombe, all 5 stars: 2012, 2015, and 2020.

This is a special opportunity to compare three harvests of the Super Tuscan il Drago e le 8 Colombe produced at Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda. This wine brings you the aromas of ripe red fruits and the powerful and harmonious flavour typical of a high hill territory where the air is clean and the ripening of the grapes is slow.

OFFER OF THE MONTH: THREE VINTAGES WITH FIVE STARS

The classification of Italian wine vintages ranges from the maximum excellence of five stars, awarded exclusively to the best vintages, to a minimum of one star for the worst vintages. By consulting the vintages you can choose which ones to buy for a wine to cellar or to drink immediately.

🎁 together with the bottles you will find a small gift: a personalized wine saver pump from the Donatella Cinelli Colombini winery. Ideal for decorating your cellar or your kitchen but also as a gift..

3 April 2025

NEW OIL IN ANTIQUE TERRACOTTA JARS IN THE ORCIAIA

A RETURN TO THE ORIGINS: THE RESTORATION OF THE OLD TRADITION OF USING THE ORCI FOR PRESERVING EXTRA VIRGIN OIL AT THE FATTORIA DEL COLLE DI TREQUANDA

For centuries, extra virgin olive oil has been stored in terracotta jars, an old method that today risks being lost due to the difficulty of adapting the jars to health standards and preserving the oil from oxidation. Donatella Cinelli Colombini has decided to bring this tradition back to life with an ambitious and complex restoration, giving new life to the olive oil culture of Trequanda.

INSPIRATION: VILLA LE CORTI AND L’ORCIAIA IN IMPRUNETA

Three years ago, a visit to Duccio Corsini’s Villa Le Corti lit the spark of this adventure. In that historic estate, the oil is still stored for a few weeks in enormous terracotta jars from Impruneta, a traditional Tuscan material. Prince Corsini revealed to Donatella that his oil sells quickly and at very high prices, making her see an extraordinary opportunity.

THE SEARCH FOR JARS AND THE CREATION OF THE NEW ORCIAIA

At the Fattoria del Colle, Donatella started counting the ancient jars, mostly used as decorative elements, finding 24 of them. But where to make the orciaia room? The solution came unexpectedly: a television report on bank robbers and the saws with which they cut reinforced concrete gave the right idea. With the help of her technician, Fabio Ligioni, Donatella found a company capable of using the same tool to open a door in two old reinforced concrete wine vats placed side by side, made by her great-grandfather and unused for years. Thus two new spaces were created, covered and sanitized, ready to accommodate the jars and guarantee optimal conditions for the conservation of the oil.

12 December 2024

FOLIAGE IN THE VINEYARDS AND LANDSCAPE THERAPY

WALKING IN A BEAUTIFUL PLACE REGENERATES PSYCHOLOGICALLY AND PHYSICALLY, HERE IS THE LANDSCAPE THERAPY WHICH IS AT MAXIMUM INTENSITY IN AUTUMN IN TUSCANY

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini, #winedestination

cantina con vista Toscana Fattoria del Colle

winery with a view Tuscany Fattoria del Colle

My friend Angelo Gaja says that the foliage in the Tuscan vineyards has only one colour and is therefore less beautiful than that of the wine districts where there are many grape varieties and therefore many shades.

But that’s not true!

The human mind needs simple and harmonious images to feel good. Certain territories such as Val d’Orcia, a UNESCO heritage site since 2004 due to the beauty of its agricultural landscape, offer this type of scenery. Almost a balm for the soul.

The leaves of the vines begin to yellow immediately after the harvest and fall at the end of December. A short period in which the Tuscany of wine, where Sangiovese is the undisputed sovereign, is covered by a golden yellow brocade. The landscape of Brunello, Chianti Classico or Vino Nobile has remained intact for centuries. There are some large factories, a remnant of the industrialization dream of the mid-twentieth century, but they are very few, not like in Piedmont.

The landscape has an austere harmony made of history, nature and love of mankind. Woods, ploughed land for sowing, Sangiovese vineyards that become a golden cloak. Come and see it for yourself!

6 December 2024