In 1998, Donatella Cinelli Colombini took over the running of the family Tuscan wine estates, comprising Casato in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda. She sought out a professional cellar master at the local oenologist school in Siena. She was surprised to find that whilst all the male oenologists had either been sponsored by a winery to do the course or had been booked years prior, there were still many women cellar masters still available as no good winery was interested in hiring them.
After further investigation, Donatella discovered that despite the fact that many women were graduating as oenologists, they were not ending up in wine making roles, but in assistant positions such as in wine stores and the like.
Driven by her desire to prove that women know more about good wine than just how to drink it, she decided to hire only women in the production of her great Tuscan wines and thus was born the Prime Donne Project.
The first winery in Italy with a female staff, they are producing a great range of top-quality, award-winning wines on both the Montalcino and Trequanda Donatella Cinelli Colombini estates.
The Montalcino vineyard produces the traditional Brunello di Montalcino and Rosso di Montalcino wines, whilst at the Trequanda estate they have been experimenting with reintroducing traditional varieties which have fallen out of common use in the last decades or more such as the Foglia Tonda.
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Enjoy tastings of traditional Tuscany products at Tuscan villa estates owned by historic Tuscan families on the Taste of Tuscany wine tour. Walk through the Tuscan countryside and visit a famous Tuscan villa on the Perfect Morning in Tuscany small-group walking tour. Expand your Tuscan horizons on the small-group Best of Tuscany tour visiting Siena, San Gimignano and Monteriggioni too, including lunch and wine tasting at an award-winning wine estate.
Artviva: experts in Florence, Tuscany, Cinque Terre, Venice, Rome and beyond.
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