In 1998 Donatella Cinelli Colombini left her family’s estate to start her own, now Casato Prime Donne in Montalcino and Fattoria del Colle in Trequanda. She immediately 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 again, specifying however that she wanted a female cellar master, the answer changed.

 

There were many women available, as no winery would employ them. Realizing the great gap in opportunities between men and women in the industry convinced Donatella Cinelli Colombini to create a winery committed to 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.

 

Operating on 336 hectares on the hills facing Montalcino and its area of Brunello, Chianti Classico and Nobile di Montepulciano, a crossroads of great red wines, the winery produces some of the most incredible wines coming out of Tuscany.