Cooking classes and Winery Tours

Podere Il Casale in Pienza is a great cooking class and not far from Montalcino. We did this last year and enjoyed our day.

I second Podera Casale! We got the tour with meal (tastings actually) and all the food and wine was from right there on the farm. We loved it so much we went back a couple of years later.
Enjoy!

I noticed that you specifically mentioned a winery tour - we visited several wineries and found the tours to be nice, but after a while somewhat repetitive. If you’re visiting a few wineries I’d say no need to tour every time.

The most unique and memorable winery tour we did was at Capitoni, outside of Pienza. It’s located in a separate smaller and less well-known wine region called Orcia (between the regions for Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano).

Capitoni is the opposite of commercial - it’s an authentic small family business with father and son winemakers. The son, Angelo, gave us the tour while his father was working the tractor. The tasting was a fun conversation - no fancy tasting room but it was really special. Also fun to buy a bottle or two because they don’t distribute much in the US so you’ll have a really unique souvenir.

For a Brunello tasting (without the tour) we really enjoyed Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona which is just south of Montalcino and mentioned in Rick’s Tuscany guidebook. Tremendous wines and great values if you’re interested in purchasing something to take home.

Thank you all so much for the suggestions. I will check them all out!