95 Wine Enthusiast
94 James Suckling
94 Michael Godel - Wine Align
93 Wine Spectator
93 Wine Advocate
92 Vinous – Eric Guido
Brunello is produced in Montalcino, the best place in the world to grow the Sangiovese variety. A grape grown in Montalcino for hundreds and maybe thousands of years. Thanks to the climate and the soil, it has taken on specific characteristics: it produce a low yield of grapes, with small clusters and small berries. For this reason it is possible to create, in Montalcino, a great red wine apt for a long ageing such as Brunello, using only one variety: Sangiovese. Brunello is the Italian wine that remains the longest in the cellar; it goes on sale four and a half years after the harvest, of theses at least two must be in oak barrels.
Casato Prime Donne, where this Brunello di Montalcino comes from, is a property made up of 40 hectares where the present owner’s ancestors used to go hunting, and on their honeymoons. It was a part of a large estate belonging to one of the most important families in Montalcino that for more than 4 centuries had cultivated this land passing it down the family line, during the last generations from mother to daughter, as it belonged to Donatella Cinelli Colombini’s grandmother, then to her mother, and in the future it will belong to her daughter Violante Gardini.
It was however the present owners grandfather, Giovanni Colombini, one of the Brunello pioneers, to interpret Casato Prime Donne’s vocation for the production of grapes and to plant here the first “specialized” vineyards, as they were called then to distinguish them from those that were called “promiscuous” where the farmers grew vines together olive trees and wheat.
To begin with the property was called Casato. The name was changed into Casato Prime Donne in 1998 when Donatella received the property and decided to create here the first winery in Italy to be all female staffed. The cellar staff, the wine maker Valérie Lavigne, the cellar master and even the sales staff guided by Violante Gardini the CinellicolombiniJr, who in the future will guide the winery, are all women.
Bottles produce: from 15,000 to 40,000 depending on the vintage. Every year for the production of Brunello only the most apt grapes get chosen, if the weather has been favourable there are more clusters otherwise it is necessary to be more selective.
Ratings and Prizes: Every year the Brunello gets high ratings from the most important specialized international press. These are the highest rankings ever obtained: Wine Enthusiast 95/100 and 14th in the TOP 100 in 2005; Wine Spectator 94/100; Wine Advocate 94/100; James Suckling 93/100; Jancis Robinson 17/20.