By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

In truth, the Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda, in the most beautiful Tuscan countryside, is loved because it hasn’t changed, because those who come back after twenty years find their memories …. However, updates are essential to keep alive a small hamlet  with four hundred years of history. And here is the news for 2023.

CAMERA DEI VIGNAIOLI

The Vignaioli room is located on the ground floor in the building formerly called Podere Ginestreto and built over two hundred years ago. Externally it has two large brick arches over the lane which crosses the Fattoria del Colle and is now used for outdoor seating. Presumably in the past it was a stable or a warehouse for carts, plows and other agricultural implements. More recently it has been used as a canteen for the winemakers who cultivate the most precious things on the farm: the Sangiovese vines. This is why it is called the Grape growers’ room. It is furnished with a small sofa, a chest of drawers and an authentic antique wardrobe that give a lived-in feel to this room, restored in 2023 and equipped with air conditioning and Wi-Fi.

As is well known, Tuscany protects historic buildings and landscapes. For this reason, the restoration of the Camera Vignaioli was a real puzzle and only after many attempts did the definitive project arrive.…

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L'articolo Rosso di Montalcino DOC 2018 Bio directly on your doorstep sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Some vegetables are cooked three times: boiled, fried and recooked in tomato. In the end, even cauliflower, which is normally not very tasty, becomes a king’s treat.
In Montalcino, one of the most delicious recipes is made with the same three cooking and traditionally solemn lunch of August: rooster stewed with recooked celery .
Here I describe a winter version based on thistles that brings to the table the intense taste of the Tuscan tradition and can be served as a side dish of a roast or alone.

INGREDIENTS FOR CARDI RIFATTI

A cardoon of about one kilo, 8 ripe tomatoes or 150 g of tomato sauce, two eggs, flour, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt and black pepper.

PREPARATION OF CARDI RIFATTI

Wash, cut into pieces of about ten centimeters the ribs of the thistle removing with the knife the hardest ribs. Boil them in salted water for over half an hour.

Peel the tomatoes, break them and toss them in the pan where the garlic is frying in the extra virgin olive oil. Add salt, sprinkle with black pepper and slowly remove the sauce.
Mix the eggs and salt, flour the thistle, pass them in the eggs and then throw them in the hot oil making them brown on each side.…

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Typically the soup of Tuscan bread is a very tasty vegetable soup poured on the bread. It is therefore vegan. Only the ciancifricola and Easter soup contain also the egg.
There is however one exception: in Trequanda. The recipe book of the small medieval village near Fattoria del Colle there are two bread soups with pork. The soup with the paw and the trequandina soup.
Below I transcribe the recipe that I received from the housewives of Trequanda and that was illustrated by Silvia Argilli with extraordinary skill. Silvia is one of the young polyglots who welcome tourists in the farm house of Fattoria del Colle but has a past as a painter and illustrator.

 TREQUANDA SOUP  INGREDIENTS

Half a kilo of white beans
One red onion
Two ounces of salted Cinta Senese ham (it is essential that it is very fat as an alternative use ham and bacon) cut into very thick slices
Parsley

Half a glass of extra virgin olive oil
A quarter of cabbage
One carrot

Two ribs of celery,
Chard,
Spinach,
Two or three zucchini,
A handful of green beans,
300 grams of Tuscan homemade bread without salt
The Tuscan cuisine is simple but to release its intense flavors needs ingredients of excellent quality. Freshly picked vegetables and real bread made with sourdough. Come to the Fattoria del Colle Restaurant to taste it and you will understand the difference

PREPARATION OF TREQUANDA SOUP

Soak the white beans the day before. …

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Story of the 2018 Rosso di Montalcino vintage

The 2018 harvest has given wines rich in aromas thanks to the strong difference in temperature between night and the day, in September, consequently during the last stage of maturation.
That of 2018 was a harvest with few grapes and required real courage to wait to harvest after the grape skins had softened and so becoming able to yield to the must the noble substances: the polyphenols.

In fact, in 2018 the weather forecast promised rain and hail. If the storms had really arrived, they would have ruined the bunches. Donatella and her winemakers have bet on the sun and thus faced the challenge by taking into the cellar only wonderful grapes.

Novelty in 2018

For the first time, in 2018, we have resumed an ancient habit of the Montalcino winemakers, the grapes have been selected in the vineyard by harvesting only those with the same level of ripening. This allowed to vinify in each vat grapes with homogeneous characters. Obviously the work of the winemakers has become slower and they have returned more than once in the same vineyards always choosing the grapes.
Above all the advantage of this type of selective harvesting is to have the perfect grapes for both Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino.

TYPE: dry red.…

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By Donatella Cinelli Colombini

The name of this dish changes from village to village but the recipe changes very  little. It is a delicious traditional bread soup with cabbage from southern Tuscany, typical of the winter time . In Montalcino we call it washed bread, in Trequanda, where the Fattoria del Colle is located, they call it slices or cabbage with slices.
More than with any other dish you can appreciate the freshly pressed extra virgin oil , especially what is made from olives with a full taste and fragrant scent.
Consequently like all very simple recipes the quality of the result depends on the ingredients that must be extraordinary, the cabbage obviously but mostly the  EVO oil, the vinegar and especially the bread, rigorously without salt and handmade with sourdough.
The most suitable wine to accompany this soup is a Chianti Superiore or a Doc Orcia that come from the  same territory as the oil that, in our case, is from Trequanda where the Fattoria del Colle is located.

INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PEOPLE

1,5KG of cauliflower, 4 ounces of Tuscan homemade bread, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, salt and pepper

PREPARATION OF PAN LAVATO

First of all wash the cabbage, chop it coarsely and boil it with its leaves in salted water. …

L'articolo Pan lavato (washed bread) soup that enhances the new olive oil. sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

Jewels for true enthusiasts who, with the previous vintage, have obtained prestigious international awards such as 95/100 by Robert Parker/ Wine advocate.
The Vin Santo DOC Chianti is the most prestigious and successful result of the project on dessert wines wanted by Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s husband, Carlo Gardini. Donatella does not drink sweet wines and had strongly reduced their production at Fattoria del Colle although this winery, located in the south of Chianti, had a centuries-old tradition of Vin Santo. Carlo is instead a fan of sweet whites and has dedicated time and energy to create small selections of signature wine handcrafted in detail. It includes the Passito, the Vin Santo and the prestigious Vin Santo selection we are talking about.

WHERE THE VIN SANTO OF FATTORIA DEL COLLE IS BORN

People who visit Fattoria del Colle can enter the vinsantaia climbing in the attic. Here the wine remains for over ten years in the caratelli (small barrels from 50 to 200 liters) while the summer heat and the winter cold implement the maturation as per the Tuscan tradition.
Finally the Vin Santo that comes out of the caratelli is very little, much less than the 35%  limit of the Chianti specification. This is why the bottles in this selection are so small and so few. …

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A small selection of very few bottles for lovers of sweet wines

First of all Vin Santo is part of the history of Tuscany. In ancient times all the noble families had caratelli (small barrels) in which the Vin Santo aged in the attic of their Villas. Vin Santo was always served at important banquets .
We do not know when the production of this sweet golden and refined wine was born, it surely existed already in Siena in the fourteenth century. But it was precisely during a banquet that the Vin Santo ceased to be called “vino pretto” that means pure and took on its present name.

The legend

According to legend, this happened in 1439 after the Council of Florence. That meeting was attended by the Greek Cardinal Giovanni Bessarione who, tasting it, exclaimed “this is the wine of Xantos! ” in reference to the island where sweet wines were produced at the time particularly appreciated. Hence, since then xantos wine became  Vin Santo and the name  remained to indicate the delicious Tuscan nectar.

Fattoria del Colle too, has its vinsantaia, it is  in the attic of the sixteenth-century villa. So, crossing the winery and climbing a staircase you can reach the attic where in winter it is very cold and in summer it is very hot. Here are the small barrels  in which the golden liquid, squeezed from the dried grapes, remains to ripen for over ten years.…

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I was born in Chiusi, a small village located on the border between Tuscany and Umbria, south of Siena. It is an old town with Etruscan origins surrounded by countryside and small lakes.

I have always wished to leave the countryside, and sometimes I did, to look for different spaces, different ways of living and views. Always very nice!

At Fattoria del Colle, located between Crete Senesi and Val d’Orcia and not far from Chiusi, I have found a place projected into the future but with strong ties with the past and its traditions. It is a place that makes its key feature the old customs, the old tales, the old winter games and folk evenings, nature and contact with it.
All this is a precious cultural richness which it is worth to transmit to all the guests who come for a visit  or for a holiday  in Tuscany.
And the interest that all this inspires in them is evident..
I remember once, I was carrying out a guided tour of the estate trying to catch the attention of a group who’s wish was to visit a real old farm, beside their interest in wine .
I had the impression that at the beginning they where thinking I was telling something I had only heard about, but when I specified that at home I had the same old jars for the extra virgin olive oil that I was showing them, their interest immediately changed.…

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An unique experience to discover how the great tuscan red wines such as Brunello, Chianti Superiore and Doc Orcia are  produced. You will meet new friends, you will sleep in the houses of the ancient farmers and you will live a funny day between vineyards and cellars during the grape harvest with technical wine tasting and tasty dishes from Crete Senesi and Val d’Orcia. Sunday, before leaving, vertical guided wine tasting of Brunello di Montalcino produced at Casato
Prime Donne and lunch at our restaurant with pinci. Furthermore visit to neighbouring towns such as Pienza and Montepulciano.

Programme:

Saturday 22nd September
Check-in at Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda in the south of Chianti district
4.00 pm grape harvest experience in the vineyards
5.00 pm in the cellar to see the vinification process
6.30 pm Happy wine in the histyorical cellar at Fattoria del Colle with Cenerentola Orcia Doc and
Pecorino cheese from Crete Senesi
8.00 pm Dinner at the restaurant Osteria di Donatella with view on Trequanda village. Menù with dishes of ancient senese meat like Pappardelle al sugo di cinta senese and grilled chianina meat

matched with Brunello di Montalcino Prime Donne 2007
Night stay at Fattoria del Colle

Sunday 23rd September

10.30 am guided tour at Fattoria del Colle in the ancient rooms of the sixteenth-century villa, the chapel and the historical cellar. …

L'articolo Grape harvest weekend in Tuscany sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.

I kept pondering and reflecting about this image and after a while it occurred to me how much growing up as a child in Tuscany has changed since I was young, even in the most simple little things such as this. Today there are so many video games and other distractions which encourage  children to  play insided, away from the Natural environment which surrounds them.

Before it wasn’t like that. In the Summer when I was a child I used to spent the entire afternoon with my friends collecting  pine nuts and then crushing them on the wall. As a child I was almost addicted to the consumption of these pine nuts. My grandmother was so worried about how many I ate that she made someone  cut down all the pine trees and made them take them away.…

L'articolo The Swiss people, Pine Nuts and the Mantovana cake sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.