We are looking for an afternoon wine tasting guide or tour in Montalcino. Preferably one or two south vineyards (Castello Banfi-Poggio) and north (Altesino).
Are these roads difficult to drive? Also, I am looking for nearby accommodations. Thanks!
Posted by
Portland, OR
1091 posts
No, the roads aren't difficult to drive at all. They are two lane country roads. We visited both wineries and they are open to the public. I would make an appointment at Altesino to make sure they have time for you. Banfi is huge and they have a huge tasting room.
We stayed at www.canalicchiodisoprawinerelais.it and loved it. They have their own winery there too that they will tour you through as a guest of the hotel.
Posted by
OP
17 posts
April, thank you. They ha one room left. This is perfect and just what I was looking for!
Posted by
Portland, OR
1091 posts
That's great news!!! You're going to love it.
Be sure to stop into the Enoteca di Piazza in Montalcino! great views and incredible selection of wines. And they offer free or very cheap shipping, depending on how much you spend. Enjoy!
Posted by
1 posts
Tourscany tours
Fantastic private wine tour around Tuscany. Corrado is his name & we loved him!
Picked us up at our hotel in Sienna for a day in and around Tuscany. He offers a north or a south Tuscan tour. We chose the south and he took us to a few small wineries to taste Brunelo di Montelicheos (spelling) Even a Tuscan lunch at one of the wineries.
Awesome. One of the highlights of our 10 day Italy trip with my wife & 2 sons 17 &20
His web site is www.tuscanwinetour.com
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
1054 posts
Spent a week in Montalcino just Brunello tasting in 2015.
Skip what the locals called "Banfi-land" with all the modern mechanical mass production. There is a love/hate relationship with Banfi in town from many we talked to. The hate from the "lower" quality they said and Banfi had the DOCG map re-drawn to include Banfi so they can sell their Brunello. Here is the Consorziom map of all 200+ producers in Montalcino. Page 8 has the map and listing. Notice which vineyard is the furthest south at #18. Now the locals loved Banfi for getting more people drinking Brunello around the world and opening more exports of others. Banfi has tried to have the Rosso rules changed from 100% Sangiovesse to include a mix with other grapes.
http://www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it/store/file-6.pdf
We did visit Banfi-land to see the winery and it is indeed beautiful. However we felt more like being in Napa then Italy there.
if you like Brunello then stop where it was so called invented at Biondi-Santi. You need a reservation there, they just don't take walk ins. Spectatular. I say so call as we saw documents from the Padelletti family that predated Biondi Santi with wine. Padelletti is a great small production if you can visit there. It's one of the only ones actually within the city walls. So other good ones we found were San Polino and La Fornace - smaller vineryards where we spent a while with the famiily and crashed one family dinner. Silvio Nardi and Poggio Antico were good vists too.
Allesandro, Giovanni and Mario were amazing at Montalcino Wine Tours who are based there in town. http://www.montalcinowinetours.com/