Italy's first all-woman vineyard

Nestled between oak casks and clutching glasses of Brunello di Montalcino, one of Tuscany’s finest wines, a group of wine tasters listens attentively to their remarkable host.

Donatella Cinelli Colombini is something of a vineyard revolutionary, having opened Italy’s first winery run solely by women. Wrapped in a warm coat smartened with pearls and wearing gold earrings, she speaks passionately to her guests about the philosophy which governs the Casato Prime Donne winery.

Her ancestors first owned land in the Montalcino area in the 16th century, and recent generations have passed property down the female line. When Cinelli Colombini inherited the estate from her mother in the late 1990s, she went in search of staff at Siena’s œnology school.

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“They told me that I’d need to wait months to have a good student. But when I said I wanted a female student, they said that there were lots, because no winery wanted them,” Cinelli Colombini says, explaining that her response was to create Prime Donne, “to demonstrate that the discrimination was not justified nor useful”.

The property now has 16 hectares of Sangiovese vineyards, producing the area’s famous Rosso and Brunello di Montalcino wines. They adhere to the strict controls which afford them the quality DOC and DOCG labels, while Cinelli Colombini’s estate is one of 210 producers in the Consortium of the Brunello of Montalcino. Bottles, which cost €29, are shipped worldwide, with the largest group of both buyers and visitors coming from the US.

The Prime Donne vineyard sits in the shadow of Montalcino, the picturesque hilltop town a 25-mile drive south of Siena, whose narrow streets are dominated by shops filled with local wines. The winery’s vineyards roll along the surrounding hills, while tastings take place in a building surrounded by tanks of fermenting grapes, or in the main house, where casks are kept and a comfortable upstairs room affords a place to sit and take in the Tuscan countryside.

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Colombini has now taken the all-female concept a step further, producing the Prime Donne selection, which is chosen each year by a tasting panel of four women. She has also established an annual prize recognising female achievement - the Casato Prime Donne” International Award - which in 2015 was awarded to Giusi Nicolini, mayor of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, who was praised for her response to the Mediterranean refugee crisis.

In Tuscany, winemaking has traditionally been a male pursuit, in part due to the physical demands of operating a vineyard. Antonella Marconi, a British-Italian guide who has worked for the Cinelli Colombini family since 1989, says that when Prime Donne opened they did not face strong opposition but it certainly woke people up to the gender imbalance.

“[It was] a discrimination and habit that was so deep-rooted that no one even noticed,” she says. “It made people realise that they’d not been helping equal opportunities, because no one ever thought that good wine could be made by women.”

While a number of staff work between Casato Prime Donne and Cinelli Colombini’s second estate, Fattoria del Colle, eight women make the Prime Donne wines. Marconi says she finds women more determined and describes the winery’s founder as an inspiration.

As well as offering various tours, such as a 50-minute tastings for €18pp, Prime Donne has also developed a “music route”, in which wines are paired with songs. Other options include a lunch tasting and a “little winemaker” session in which visitors can try their hand at creating a Super Tuscan wine.

Coral Sisk, the creator of Curious Appetite Travel, who leads food and wine tours in Tuscany, says she takes clients to Prime Donne as the winery represents authenticity, quality and uniqueness: “They have a unique story and they’re part of this new movement that includes women in the landscape.”

Sisk has seen the arrival of a small number of female winemakers, who have been praised within the industry. “It’s not the novelty that they’re women; they’re producing quality wine,” she says.

After nearly 20 years running Prime Donne, Cinelli Colombini looks forward to women playing an increasingly active role in winemaking: “I hope that women will have more of a voice, more possibility to give their ideas and take decisions.”

• Casato Prime Donne, Località Casato 17, Siena, Montalcino, 53024, cinellicolombini.it. Tastings start at €6 and can be requested daily in English, Italian, French and German