Wine Tasting - Wine Tours in Italy

The 2008 edition of “Cantine Aperte” — “Open Cellars“, traditionally taking place last week-end of May in Italy, kicks off next week-end (May 24-25). Many wine farms and wineries open the doors to public, with free tasting sessions across the country.  

Several wine-themed events are scheduled in this week-end. To locate a farm or winery offering free tasting during this edition of “Cantine Aperte”, consult the list of farms and wineries joining to “Cantine Aperte” on the website www.movimentoturismovino.it.

Scenes from grape harvest and wine making in a farm located in the surroundings of Naples.
(via YouTube).

Next weekend the annual “Cantine Aperte” (”Open Cellars“), will give again the opportunity of free wine tastings across Italy.

“Cantine Aperte” is also an opportunity to better know about wine, vine, and territory.

Along with wine-tasting sessions, Open Cellars organises a range of exciting initiatives, including dinner with the winemaker, a gourmet event matching wines to specific foods, wine tours etc….

To know more about the selected wineries and distilleries involved in the 2007 edition of Open Cellars, download the guide here

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).
Find accommodations in Tuscany.

Petra winery in Tuscany — see in the picture, is one of the several Italian wineries which hired in the last few years famous architects to designe its cellars.

The trend has emerged for the most famous wine producers in Italy to transform their cellars into architectural landmarks, by hiring world renowned architects to design avant-garde wineries.

The idea is to blend the efficiency offered by modern oenology with top-shelf designs.

In the last two years, Petra attracted more than 4000 visitors, who came to savor its wine but also to see the peculiar structure in which it is made.
“Around 20 percent of them didn’t know anything about wine and came here just to admire the structure’s design,” explained Edoardo Maggi, project coordinator at Petra winery in Tuscany. (source).