The letter of the master of cinema to the "father" of Commissioner Maigret who speaks of Montalcino and Brunello, to remember Francesca Colombini Cinelli

"Dear Simenon, driving through the valleys around Chianciano we arrived today at Monte Alcino, a mythical hill, at least as fabulous as Olympus was for the Greeks at the time of Homer. Here too there is a divinity: Brunello di Montealcino, a red wine that can compete advantageously even with the most celebrated French wines". Thus begins the letter that the master of world cinema Federico Fellini sends to his friend Georges Simenon, one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, "father" of Commissioner Maigret (published by Adelphi in the small but precious volume "Carissimo Simenon. Mon cher Fellini. Correspondence of Federico Fellini and Georges Simenon"), written "in the office of the owner of the company" and accompanied on "idea of Juliet" Masina, by a bottle of the Fattoria dei Barbi. And that is just one of the fascinating stories behind the great Italian wines, and that tell how figures like Francesca Colombini Cinelli, the "La Siniora del  Brunello" and the historic Montalcino winery, have anticipated the times, bringing to the territory, already in the seventies, great personalities.

"I write these lines in the office of the owner of the company", continues Fellini in the letter with which WineNews remembers her, "put a little in awe by the avalanche of awards, diplomas, medals, cups that dominate me from everywhere and by the photos of reigning cardinals, and famous drunkards from all over the world with dedications of total gratitude. So I'm also caught up in the vortex of emphasis. I don't know much about wine, indeed I don't know about it at all, but this Brunello tasted in front of the extraordinary landscape of the Val d'Orcia seemed very good to me. However, the idea of having him judged by Simenon was Juliet's. So here it is, I hope it has arrived in good condition. We toast to the happiness of our friends Teresa and George. Prosit! Cheers! Hurrah! With love, Federico Fellini".

The Fattoria dei Barbi, today led by Stefano Cinelli Colombini, has written the history of Montalcino and Brunello, thanks to a pioneering personality like Francesca Colombini Cinelli, among the first women, from a very young age after the death of her father, to lead an important Italian wine company and member of the prestigious National Academy of Vine and Wine. A whole life lived in and for the territory, for its agriculture, wine tourism and its culture, weaving relationships with the peasant world and with great writers, artists and men of culture among the most illustrious of all time, founder in 1981 of the prestigious "Barbi Colombini Award", which brought to Montalcino personalities such as Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, the Nobel Prize for Literature Saul Bellow, the writer Mario Rigoni Stern and the poet Mario Luzi, the art historian Cesare Brandi, the journalists Enzo Biagi, Giorgio Bocca and Sergio Zavoli, and many others.

Francesca Cinelli Colombini, grape grower, winemaker, and matriarch of one of Italy’s most iconic families in wine, has died on 31st December  2022. She was 91 years old. An  exhibition in the cellar of the Fattoria dei Barbi, where the old Brunello Reserves rest, recalls the figure of Francesca Colombini Cinelli, with memories and works of art, fragments of private life and columns of American tabloids that marked an era. "My mother Francesca was an extraordinary and multifaceted woman. For almost a century she was one of the greatest personalities of Italian wine. An eclectic personality, becausehé was also an artist, an intellectual and a writer. From the memories of childhood in Florence, where Casa Colombini was the meeting place of the most important writers, in Montalcino with his Brunello, to his paintings and art ceramics, passing through the many who loved his wine and the people of his company. A collection of photos, videos, accessories, objects and much more, to retrace ties, anecdotes and significant moments of a long life", underlines Stefano Cinelli Colombini.

Source: WineNews - The Pocket Wine Web Site in Italy