Local Wine Events

 Highlights

• Private tastings at boutique & historic wineries, including Castello Brolio, Rocca di Montegrossi, Ciacci Piccolomini

• Gourmet wine dinners with regional food-wine pairings

• User-friendly wine education

Day 1 – Welcome to Tuscany

From Florence, drive into picture-card perfect Tuscany: the hills of Chianti Classico. A morning tasting at a boutique winery offers an introduction to the sangiovese grape, the basis of Tuscany’s most famous red wines. After lunch in the wine village of Greve, we’ll delve further into the difference between Chianti and Super Tuscans at the Greve Enoteca, a tasting room with 200+ wines to sample, then at another family-run winery, such as the biodynamic cult winery Castello Rampolla. Dinner is in a medieval borgo, with family-style platters of homemade pasta, wild boar, and lots of chianti wine. Watch the stars at our farmstead hotel, deep in the Chianti countryside. L, D

 Day 2 – Chianti Classico

Visit Chianti’s birthplace, a crenellated, fairytale-like castle from the 1400s: Castello di Brolio. We’ll tour, taste, and lunch at the winery. Then we visit their cousins over the hill at Rocca di Montegrosso, a boutique winery with exquisitely elegant renditions of Chianti. A hands-on cooking lesson at a Tuscan farmhouse will give you pasta-making bragging rights. B, D

Day 3 – The Sights of Siena

A day in the Gothic city of Siena combines a tour of its most famous landmarks, the Palazzo Publico and the striped cathedral, with time on your own to browse the museums and churches, the wonderful ceramic shops,  or the National Enoteca. End the day at our second hotel, in the wine town of Montalcino, overlooking the Orcia Valley. B, D

Day 4 – Big into Brunello

Two tastings today focus on the terroir of Montalcino and how this changes Brunello di Montalcino, one of Italy’s most coveted wines. Featured estates might include the historic property Ciacci Piccolomini and newscomers like Il Maronetto or Fanti. An afternoon pause includes a visit to the still-active monastery Sant’ Antimo, where we’ll hear monks sing mid-day chants. D

Day 5 – Renaissance art, cheese & wine

Pienza is famous for its pecorino cheese and its Renaissance architecture. We’ll taste cheese and tour this “ideal city,” created by Pope Pius II in the 1400s. Then lunch in Montepulciano, a hilltown lined with Renaissance palaces, and taste its famous Vino Nobile, drunk by nobles since the 1700s, focusing on one of the up-and-coming wineries of this DOCG area. B, D

Day 6 – Arrrivederci!

A shuttle to Florence, arriving by noon, and assistance with your travel plans. B

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