Italy · Montepulciano & Valdichiana

Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Donatella Cinelli Colombini runs two Tuscan estates: Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino, where every vintner and winemaker is a woman, and Fattoria del Colle near Trequanda. The Brunello is aged in artisan-made 5- and 7-hectolitre French-oak casks with no barriques.

The producer

Donatella Cinelli Colombini makes Brunello di Montalcino at Casato Prime Donne, a 40-hectare estate on the Montalcino hill where every person in the cellar, from the harvest crew to the winemaker, is a woman. That arrangement has been in place since the winery opened in 2002 and it follows from a founding decision: when Donatella went to the Siena Enology School in 1998 looking for cellar staff, she was told that established Tuscan wineries were refusing to hire the female cellar masters they were training. She hired them. The Casato property has been in her maternal family since the late sixteenth century, and in 1998 she took it and the farm at Fattoria del Colle as her own, rebuilt both wineries from scratch, and replanted 34 hectares of vineyard.

The winemaking at Casato Prime Donne works through 17 hectares of Sangiovese, fermented in eight open-topped bare-concrete vats and aged in artisan-made French-oak casks of 5 and 7 hectolitres, with no barriques at any stage. Since 2011, a return to manual punch-down and pre-industrial cellar rhythms has reinforced that direction. The indigenous yeasts the estate selected from its own Sangiovese between 2008 and 2015 are now shared freely with other Brunello producers in the zone. At Fattoria del Colle, Donatella also farms Foglia Tonda, an old Tuscan variety abandoned for over a century before she brought it back into production.

Known for

Brunello di Montalcino from 17 hectares of Sangiovese; all-women cellar team; non-barrique élevage in artisan French-oak casks; indigenous yeasts selected and shared across Montalcino

Notable facts

The story

The Women the Big Estates Refused to Hire

When Donatella Cinelli Colombini went to the Siena Enology School in 1998 looking for cellar staff for the new Casato Prime Donne winery, the school gave her a direct answer. They had female cellar masters ready to work, trained and qualified, but the important Tuscan wineries did not want to hire women in the cellar. The graduates were available; the doors were closed. Donatella hired them. From the day Casato Prime Donne opened in 2002, every vintner and the winemaker at the estate have been women. The model has moved outward from there: the indigenous yeasts that Casato selected from its own Sangiovese between 2008 and 2015 were made available at the end of the programme to any Brunello winery that wanted them, a transfer of resource that was unusual in an appellation where producers more often guard their discoveries.

From the atlas

Donatella Cinelli Colombini

At A Glance

CountryItaly
RegionTuscany
EstatesCasato Prime Donne (Montalcino) · Fattoria del Colle (Trequanda)
AppellationsBrunello di Montalcino DOCG · Rosso di Montalcino DOC · Chianti Superiore DOCG · Orcia DOC
Core grapeSangiovese
Cellar noteNo barriques; 5- and 7-hectolitre French-oak casks; open-topped concrete fermenters

The Producer

Donatella Cinelli Colombini makes Brunello di Montalcino at Casato Prime Donne, a 40-hectare estate in Montalcino where every person in the cellar, from the vintners to the winemaker, is a woman. That arrangement has been in place since the winery opened in 2002 and it is the product of a deliberate founding decision, not a coincidence of hiring.

The Casato property has been in Donatella's maternal family since the late sixteenth century. In 1998, she separated from the wider Cinelli family group, took ownership of Casato and a second farm at Fattoria del Colle near Trequanda, and combined them under her name as a 370-hectare estate. She rebuilt both wineries from scratch and replanted 34 hectares of vineyard in the years that followed.

The second property, Fattoria del Colle, covers 336 hectares in the Chianti and Orcia DOC zones, with 17 hectares of vine and six of olive grove. It runs on a different rhythm: wider appellations, mixed fermentation in steel and concrete, and a recovery project for Foglia Tonda, an old Tuscan variety abandoned for more than a century before Donatella brought it back into production at Colle.

Place

Montalcino is a hilltop town in southern Tuscany, south of Siena, and the zone around it carries the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, one of Italy's longest-ageing red-wine designations. The grape is Sangiovese, grown here under the local synonym Brunello. Altitude, warm days and cool nights, and the wide variation in clay, limestone and sandy soils across the hillsides give the wines their combination of dark-fruit weight and cutting acidity.

Casato Prime Donne occupies 40 hectares on the Montalcino hill, with 17 hectares planted to Sangiovese. Three of those hectares are dedicated specifically to Rosso di Montalcino, the zone's shorter-aged red, and the rest feed the Brunello. The Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino lists the estate at Località Casato 17 in Montalcino.

Fattoria del Colle near Trequanda sits in the Chianti Superiore and Orcia DOC production areas: a different soil, a different altitude, and a different label hierarchy than Montalcino, but the same reliance on Sangiovese as the backbone grape.

Soil And Site

The Casato Prime Donne vineyards in Montalcino sit on a mix of soils typical of the hill: clay, limestone, and sandy tufa, varying across the 17-hectare Sangiovese block. The combination holds warmth through the growing season while allowing drainage, and it contributes to the mineral depth and firm tannin that mark Brunello at this address. Exact parcel-level soil composition and exposition data were not available from verified sources at the time of writing.

At Fattoria del Colle, the 17 vine hectares in the Chianti and Orcia zones are planted to a broader mix of varieties, including the revived Foglia Tonda grape.

Story

When Donatella Cinelli Colombini separated from the family business in 1998, she took two properties: the Casato in Montalcino and the farm at Trequanda. Neither was production-ready. She rebuilt both cellars, replanted 34 hectares of vineyard, and in 2001 and 2002 inaugurated the new wineries at Fattoria del Colle and Casato Prime Donne.

The name she gave the Montalcino estate carried an argument: Casato Prime Donne, the house of first women. The cellar team would be entirely female, from harvest crew to winemaker. That choice was not purely symbolic. The Siena Enology School had told her directly that they were training female cellar masters who could not get placed at major Tuscan wineries because established estates did not want to hire them. Donatella hired them.

In 2011, the estate opened a second chapter at Casato. The direction was called the original style project: a return to open-topped concrete fermenters, manual punch-down, and pre-industrial cellar rhythms. Eight truncated-cone bare-concrete vats, each temperature-controlled and fitted with a plunger, replaced the previous approach. The decision ran against the direction many Montalcino producers had taken during the barrique era of the 1990s and 2000s. At Casato, no barriques had ever been used: the shift to concrete reinforced a commitment to large-format French-oak élevage that was already in place.

Vineyards And Cellar

At Casato Prime Donne, the 17 hectares of Sangiovese are harvested by an all-women team. Fermentation takes place in eight open-topped bare-concrete vats: truncated-cone shaped, temperature-controlled, and worked with plungers for manual punch-down. Concrete keeps the ferment cooler and more even than steel and adds no flavour of its own, allowing the Sangiovese to express the hill rather than the vessel.

After fermentation, Brunello moves into artisan-made French-oak casks of 5 and 7 hectolitres. These are smaller than the traditional Slavonian oak botti used elsewhere in Montalcino, but far larger than barriques, which are not used at any stage. The wine spends at least two years in those casks before transfer to 15- to 40-hectolitre barrels for the remainder of its ageing requirement. The smaller French casks impart gentle oxygen contact and a light integration without pushing vanilla or toasted wood into the wine.

Between 2008 and 2015, Casato Prime Donne ran a seven-year indigenous yeast selection programme, identifying and propagating native strains from the estate's own Sangiovese fermentations. At the end of that work, the selected yeasts were made available to any Brunello producer in the zone who wanted them.

At Fattoria del Colle, fermentation uses both steel and concrete vats. The estate grows Foglia Tonda alongside Sangiovese, maintaining one of the few plantings of this forgotten variety in active production.

Wines

The Casato Prime Donne range centres on two Montalcino wines.

Brunello di Montalcino is 100% Sangiovese from the 17-hectare Casato block, aged through the estate's French-oak programme and released after the full DOCG minimum ageing requirement. The wine carries dark cherry, dried rose petal, and mineral depth on the nose, with firm, drying tannin and a long, acidic finish. It is built to age and sits at the top of the range.

Rosso di Montalcino comes from three specifically allocated hectares within the Casato vineyards and is also 100% Sangiovese. Rosso carries the same grape and the same non-barrique approach as the Brunello but ages for a shorter period and is intended for earlier drinking. It delivers more open red fruit, a lighter tannin frame, and the same mineral acidity as its senior wine.

At Fattoria del Colle, the Chianti Superiore is almost entirely Sangiovese, with a small complementary blend component kept as a nod to Chianti's traditional multi-variety character. The nose is ripe red berry and violet; the palate is full and round with balanced tannins and enough freshness to work at the table. The estate also produces wines under the Orcia DOC appellation, incorporating Foglia Tonda into the Colle range.

In The Glass

The 2020 Brunello di Montalcino opens with dark cherry and dried rose petal, then adds a mineral depth that comes through mid-palate. Tannins are firm and drying without being coarse, and the acidity is long, keeping the wine moving through a clean finish. Eric Guido, writing for Vinous, described the wine with concrete sensory language pointing to that mineral and floral register and the firm tannins characteristic of the vintage. The élevage in medium-format French oak adds integration rather than flavour: no wood spice, no vanilla, and no softening of the grape's inherent grip.

Rosso di Montalcino from the same Casato Sangiovese is brighter and more immediately accessible: redder fruit, a lighter tannin load, and the same driving acidity that defines the Montalcino hillside at this address.

The Chianti Superiore from Fattoria del Colle sits in a different register: ripe red-berry and violet aromas, a full and round mouth, and tannins that are present but not demanding. It drinks well young and carries enough body to work with food without needing the extended ageing the Brunello demands.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Rosso di Montalcino. It comes from three hectares inside the same 17-hectare Casato block as the Brunello, carries the same 100% Sangiovese, and is vinified through the same non-barrique cellar approach. What it gives at an earlier point in its life is the mineral acidity and red-fruit clarity of the Montalcino hill without the extended tannin grip and ageing requirement of the Brunello. The tannin frame is lighter, the fruit more forward, and the window for drinking opens much sooner. It is the same vineyard, the same philosophy, and an earlier version of the same wine.

Anecdote

When Donatella Cinelli Colombini went to the Siena Enology School in 1998 looking for cellar staff for the new Casato Prime Donne winery, the school gave her an unexpected answer. They had female cellar masters ready to work, trained and qualified, but important Tuscan wineries did not want to hire women in the cellar. The graduates were waiting, the places were closed. Donatella hired them. From the day Casato Prime Donne opened in 2002, every vintner and the winemaker at the estate have been women. The model has moved outward from there: the indigenous yeasts that Casato selected from its own Sangiovese between 2008 and 2015 were made available at the end of the programme to any Brunello winery that wanted them, a transfer of resource that was unusual in an appellation where producers more often guard their discoveries.

Final Word

Donatella Cinelli Colombini built two estates from the ground up after 1998 and made a series of choices that ran against the dominant direction in Italian fine wine at the time: large-format oak over barriques, concrete fermenters over steel, an all-women cellar team, a revived forgotten grape. The bottles from Casato Prime Donne carry those choices directly. Brunello di Montalcino here is mineral, firm, and built for time; Rosso di Montalcino is the earlier door into the same hill.

Sources

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