Orcia DOC Cenerentola 2016 – 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.

ORCIA DOC, Foglia Tonda

Orcia is a DOC that sit in the south-east of the famous Tuscany region in central Italy. Inaugurated in the year 2000, Orcia ranks among the younger DOCs in this traditional and historic wine region, and is yet to earn itself a name with anything like the prestige of Chianti.

Foglia Tonda is an Italian red wine grape with a precarious past. Twice forgotten and twice revived, it is now being lifted from oblivion by a number of enterprising winemakers in central Tuscany.
The name Foglia Tonda means “round leaf”. But it is not the variety’s viticultural characteristics that make it of interest to the wine world, rather its qualities in the winery. The grapes are valued for their deep pigmentation and the color boost they contribute to wine. This makes it a particularly useful complement to Sangiovese which lacks a depth of color.
Today, one of Foglia Tonda’s strongest advocates is the Donatella Cinelli Colombini winery.