Help Me Wine Lovers w/ Tuscany Winery Recommendations

[McLover321]

We have a private tour booked for Florence in July and would like to spend much of our day in Tuscany exploring wineries. We love small, non-commercial, high-quality venues. Does anyone have any recommended locations for great, authentic, Tuscan wineries?

[moyaroo]

Tuscany didn't seem to offer as much as say France in the winery visit department. Best tasting options are enotechi (wine stores +) I did not recall seeing any kind of tasting rooms at wineries. Good Luck.

[Softball20]

We did some winery tours/tastings in Tuscany. We did one when we were there on a land trip and we did a day through Tuscany by bicycle, which I believe was Machiavelli. We did another winery through a ship's tour a couple years ago, but I just don't remember the name of that one. We are doing another in July at the end of our upcoming Med cruise, but I do not yet know to which winery we are going. You might try googling this and see what you come up with, but they do exist.

[hockeyken]

:) Head for Ornellaia and/or Sassicaia. Absolute world quality wines ( Super Tuscans..... $100-200/bottle). Memories for a lifetime from a visit.

[mydreamvacation]

After visiting Pisa we went to this lovely winery fattoria il poggio. Has a great tasting with breads cheeses olive oil and LOTS of wonderful wine. My only dissapoinment was that I only bought three bottles as I found out when I got home they don't export. It was wonderful!

[seabreezer]

Poggio Antico in Montalcino. Awesome Brunellos - the best of the best of Italian wines. The town of Montalcino is also charming and the countryside is beautiful. Avignonesi is also great - they produce excellent Nobile di Montipulciano - another star Italian wine not to be confused with the mediocre Montipulciano d'Abruzzo (different grape and region). They also produce a very rare Vino Santo. It is a larger winery but the do a wonderful tour and there is a fabulous lunch on the terrace that must be booked ahead of time. Both these wineries are a ways from Florence but Chianti is nearby and there are great tasting rooms in many of the towns in the area. Chianti is chock full of wineries and there are tasting rooms and tours but it's helpful to book them in advance for the smaller ones. Just Google "wineries in Chianti" and see what you come up with.

[FKGirl]

Agree with Seabreezer on Montalcino and Poggio Antico. Also in Montalcino is costanti and Altesino. Remember that you need appointments at all but the largest wineries in Italy.

Also, the town of montalcino has a large tasting room/shop in the fortezza in the middle of town - it is a great stop to try a LOT of different stuff!

[Travelin' Mom]

On a trip to Florence, my husband and I had a driver pick us up at our hotel and bring us to Castello di Verrazano. We spent half a day there touring the winery and then tasting the wines along with some great food, including salame from the wild boar on the property. This winery is the birthplace of the explorer Giovanni Verrazano.