Brunello di Montalcino DOCG 2015 – Cinelli Colombini

Casato Prime Donne, the first Italian winery staffed entirely by women has reached International success thanks to the quality of its Brunello. Fattoria del Colle is a treasure chest of memoirs where visitors can experience the history of the Tuscan countryside in the midst of uncontaminated and organically cultivated nature.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini left her family’s estate to start her own, made up of Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda. Together with the vineyards, and the farmhouses in need of repair Donatella received some Brunello wine, and so she needed a cellar master to rack, age and bottle it. She called the Enology school in Siena, asking for a good student to hire as her cellar master. They answered that they had none; cellar masters had to be booked, years in advance. When Donatella asked the same question, specifying however that she wanted a female cellar master, the answer changed. There were many women available, as no winery would employ them. Realising the great gap in opportunities, Donatella Cinelli Colombini developed her project finalised in reducing this discrimination and demonstrating that the production of fine wines does not depend on muscles but on the passion and the talent that both genders have in equal measure.

Brunello di Montalcino 2015

Brunello di Montalcino is one of Italy’s most famous and prestigious wines and the first ever DOCG was granted here in July 1980, alongside Piedmont‘s Barolo. All Brunello di Montalcino wine is made exclusively from Sangiovese grapes and winemaking methods involve long aging.
The 2015 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino, with many pundits claiming it’s one of the best vintages ever. Coming on the heels of the washout 2014 vintage, unsurprisingly, a number of local wine makers have been touting the greatness of 2015 well before its official 2020 release.
Nobody has never seen a vintage with such an erratic performance like 2015.
The year began with a dry winter that led into a rather dry spring, with temperatures that rose in June.
July was exceptionally hot, as temperatures reached over 40°C (104°F) mid-month and brought drought conditions. August also had little rainfall. Rain fell the first week of September and cooled things down, but temperatures rose again mid-month.
Although some producers are understandably hyping up the 2015 vintage—the polar opposite of cool and wet 2014; maybe it’s not one of the best vintages of all time for Brunello, but definitely to remember.