A long awaited trip to Tuscany to experience the beautiful vineyards and wine tasting. There are many vineyards in Tuscany, so some research before travel was good. You can’t really go wrong, but it was good for us to find the vineyards that we liked and really wanted to experience. There is no doubt that Tuscany is a winery haven for wine lovers and a trip to Tuscany is not complete without wining and lunching at an old castle or farm and learning about wine making, wine tasting and matching wine with food. We chose to visit four vineyards and winery. What an experience this was. It is not only the wine, but the whole atmosphere and surroundings. Just being there and soaking up the picturesque landscape, the sun, the food – it’s like magic! For Brunello lovers – Montalcino is the place to visit.

We had our base in Impruneta (30 min drive from Florence) and went (drove) on the Chianti wine trail in Greve, which is one of Chianti’s main market towns. The vineyards in this area produce the renowned Chianti Classico DOCG.

We visited Vignamaggio winery (from the 14th century) and the place is of course beautiful. We didn’t go for the wine tour as we just wanted to have lunch and wine tasting of 3 Chianti wines that they make. We were happy with this visit and thrilled to have learned more about Chianti. Vignamaggio is 30 min drive from our base in Impruneta.

Castillo di Veranzzano also produces Chianti classico and Super Tuscans. At this place we had both the wine tour and tasting. We had lunch here, but that was not part of a “package”. The conclusion is that we loved our visit here.

The wine tasting is not unique to that of Vignamaggio, you get to taste 3 types of wines and told about them, but it is the surroundings that did it for us. Hard to explain with words, but it was…yeeees… magic.

We loved every moment being at thi incredible place and surrounded by so much beauty and calm. Approx.30min drive from our base.

The third winery we visited was in Montalcino – Castello Banfi .  The Brunello heaveeen!  We did not go on wine tour, but we had wine tasting and lunch there, where we ended up buying 6 bottles with us.

BANFI is also a huge supplier to many retailers in Tuscany, so their selection is broad. We bought this delicious Brut (bubbly) with us too.

Like the other wineries scenery is everything and makes up a big part of the whole vineyard experience and BANFI just blew us away. Next time we will book a room there to make sure we get the full experience.

TIP: If visiting many wineries, you don’t have to have a wine tour at each place. It’s expensive and the wine making process is more or less the same. So rather choose tour at one winery and go for lunch and wine tasting at the others. Also book in advance to make sure you get the day that you want.

In the medieval town Montepulciano, we visited Contucci, a 1000 years old winery in the center of Montepulciano. Montepulciano is known for the Nobile wine or correctly Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. It is not a flashy entrance so you have to look for it. Wine tasting there is fun, although small tasting space and not so fancy as BANFI, it has a great charm and it is after all the wine you want to be grandiose.

NB! You don’t have to go to a vineyard or winery for wine tasting. Both in Montepulciano and Montalcino town centers there are plentyful of wine shops that offer wine tasting.

So all in all our Vineyard experience has been perfect and we are already planning our next trip.