Wine Tasting - Wine Tours in Italy

The annual “Festa dell’Uva” (Grape Feast) in Impruneta, Chianti area (20 min. from Florence), Tuscany, offers visitors a major occasion to taste the local Chianti wine.

The feast wich celebrates the land and the beginning of the vintage year, is also an occasion to know more about the variety of grapes from which the Chianti wine is made.

In addition to the food and drink stalls in the main square of Impruneta , there is also a historical parade with spectacular costumes celebrating grapes and wine-making through the town.

- Map of Impruneta and Chianti area.
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If you plan to visit wineries in the Chianti area and eventually have wine tastings by spending a day or two, I suggest you consider a wine tour which will maximize your visit.

Firstly, you could find it a bit complicated visiting wineries in Italy: not all have tasting rooms and most are by appointment only. Secondly, you need a car; think most of non-italians hate driving in Italy…….

A one-day wine tour including visits to 4/5 wineries would cost around 100 Euro per person, and generally a full lunch and tastings are included.
However, should you tailor a your own tour, have a look to the following websites of wineries located in the area.
- http://www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it/brunello/ns.asp?wci=home&lng=1033&cur=0
- http://www.altesino.it/en/visita.php
- http://www.castellobanfi.com/
- http://www.coltibuono.com/0index.asp?Lingua=ing
- http://www.dievole.it/en/home/home.aspx
- http://www.fattoriadeibarbi.net/index_e.html

- See Chianti area on the (interactive map).
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Montepulciano, Pienza, Montalcino, is one of the most famous wine itineraries of Tuscany. By driving this 40 km road you’ll be able to go through the typical Tuscan countryside and visit one of the areas best known in the world for the production of excellent wines. (See on the interactive map).

First stage: Montepulciano land of the Vino Nobile, a wine known since the 8th century AD. Vino Nobile is a dry red wine, slightly tannic and harmonious with intense aroma of violets.

Pienza renaissance jewel, located midway between Montepulciano and Montalcino, deserves a visit.

Montalcino with its Brunello well known around the world, is the final stage of this short and intense wine tour. Brunello di Montalcino is a dry dark red wine, still, with a taste warm, full bodied, slightly tannic and with a scent of blackcurrant. Ideal to accompany red meat barbeque and venison. Rosso di Montalcino and Moscadello are the other wines from Montalcino best known.

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One of the areas most visited for the event “Cantine Aperte” - “Open Cellars“, May 27 and 28, will surely be the Chianti area, in Tuscany.
The Chianti Classico zone, area stretching between Florence and Siena, is an ideal place to combine sightseeing and wine tasting.

Great wines and typical Tuscan countryside draw in Chianti visitors all year round from all over the world, so the opportunity of free tastings and visits to the cellars in the area will not be missed. And typical towns in the area, such as Radda in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti, Gaiole in Chianti, Greve in Chianti, Montespertoli, San Casciano Val di Pesa, to name a few, are preparing to accommodate crowds of visitors. (See the map)

- The Wines
Chianti Classico, including varieties depending on the production area, such as (more…)

Tuscany is mostly noted as the red wines land, where reds made primarily from the Sangiovese grape are produced.
However, also excellent whites are produced in this region and among them, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, deserves attention.

As you can deduce from the label, it is produced in the area surrounding San Gimignano, northwest of Siena, adjacent to the Chianti zone, the well known center, so called City of Towers for its skyline of ancient towers.
Vernaccia di San Gimignano, celebrates in these days its 40th anniversary as DOC wine - DOC wine since 1966 and DOCG since 1993, on the occasion of “Una città bella e buona”, event taking place in San Gimignano through Sunday May 7.

It’s a refreshing wine, dry, harmonious, with notes of citrus, and with 12% alcohol. From the same area is the “San Gimignano”, Doc since 1996, includes a still, dry red, a white Vin Santo, and a dry rosà¨.

A tour in the area gives you chances to combine wine tasting, the sightseeing of typical Tuscan landscapes with olive groves and vineyards, and historical itineraries linking the several medieval and reneissance centers located in the surroundings of San Gimignano.

Things to see in San Gimignano: Churches of Sant’Agostino and San Lorenzo, Piazza Duomo, Palazzo del Popolo, Palazzo del Podestà , and the towers which are the icon of the town.

In the surroundings of San Gimignano you can also visit several interesting centers
- Volterra, things to see: ancient Etruscan city also famous for crafting alabaster. To not miss: Duomo, Etruscan museum, Etruscan arch, Palazzo d. Priori.
- Colle Val d’Elsa
- Certaldo
- Poggibonsi
- Siena, things to see: Piazza del Campo, Piazza del Duomo, Loggia della Mercanzia, Duomo, Battistero, Pinacoteca nazionale, Palazzo Buonsignori, Palazzo Tolomei, Palazzo Chigi-Saracini; Churches: S.Maria, S.Domenico and S.Francesco.
Siena is also known worldwide for the Palio, festivals taking place on July 2 and August 16.

See itinerary on the map
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