Il Drago le 8 Colombe – 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.

Il Drago Le 8 Colombe

The Il Drago Le 8 Colombe was produced for the first time in 2005. At that time there were only 7 doves, and then Valérie Lavigne the consulting wine maker who is also a professor at the Bordeaux University joined the team. She changed the blend, by removing the Alicante and substituting it with the Sagrantino, a grape variety from Umbria, the region right next to Tuscany. Sangiovese gives the elegance, Merlot the roundness and the Sagrantino gives the structure. The result is a wine able to age at length and able to excite and give pleasure to those who drink it.