Small-Group Brunello Wine Tour of Montalcino from Florence

We had a wonderful private tour, two organic wineries in the Chianti classico region. Our tour guide Andrea is wonderful. His knowledge of wines, the wineries and the area made our tour fantastic! I highly recommend booking with Andrea and italy and wine tour!

TL;DR - this tour is a delight to those who truly care about the entire winemaking process, history, and culture. My wife and I planned our dream vacation to Italy with a focus on food and wine. Our time in the Florence area mandated the intentional trip to my (and now OUR) favorite winemaking area - Montalcino. We spent months planning and researching and came across this wonderful local company - “Italy & Wine Tours.” Upon review of their website we were captivated by their intentionality to have the time be an intimate and thoughtfully curated all day adventure from Florence through the Chianti region, into the romantic hills of Val d’Orcia, and onto the hillside of Montalcino. To our delight - on the day of the trip we found that we were the only couple who signed up to go that day. Our tour guide Nicolò (who was INCREDIBLE and has formal WSET training/certification) was joined by the delightful daughter (Ippolita) of the company’s owner. It was the best experience traveling with them. From the moment we were introduced to the moment we were dropped off at the end of the day we never stopped talking, laughing, sharing stories, and learning more about our favorite shared passion - Italian wine. Now onto the WINE! I won’t spoil your trip with too many specifics, but our tour began from the beginning - how did Brunello di Montalcino come to be? We toured the streets of Montalcino and immersed ourselves in local history, tradition, etc. following the city, we were off to the first winery. The first winery focus was on the (traditional) aspects of Brunello. The centuries old family fortress made it abundantly clear. It was an idyllic location through the cellars, learning about the soil, property history for pilgrimages, ancient Rome, and crusades. We sampled 4 wines produced by the site which trended towards elegant, refined, and approachable. During the tasting we were blessed with a delicious and traditional private Italian lunch. Afterwards we went to the second winery which was slightly more modern (in winemaking style) but nonetheless a delight. We dove deeper into soil composition, weather, aging conditions, and micro-factors. The wine at the second location was big, bold, wonderfully complex and personally my preferred style. We concluded our time thanking our hosts and guides over and over again with multiple bottles in hand to bring home and shared with our family. We sincerely hope you (the reader) get to experience Italy and Montalcino in the same way we did. Personal highlights / Why choose this company: - historic, locally/generational owned wineries - not large corporate productions. - 2 production styles helped compare/contrast the same type of wine helping me choose future bottles more accurately. - The tour guides / owners. They care about you, and hospitality is so genuine. Please support companies like this. Thank you so much Nicolò and Ippolita. You are forever in our hearts and we hope our paths cross again in the future!! *David & Kenzie (Seattle, WA)

We had such an amazing trip with Andrea and Iponea! It was amazing to get yo explore the stunning Tuscan countryside and to see and have lunch in an old castle that is now used to make wine. We loved getting to stop in cute towns and try lots of local wines as well! Capanna was our favorite!

Our Guide Andrea was really competent, funny, entertaining and relaxed. We loved the experience in Montalcino. I can only recommend for you to book this Tour

I cannot express enough my gratitude to Andrea for making this unique experience in Montalcino exceptional. Andrea was amazingly interesting, entertaining, caring to our needs and very knowledgeable. Being with my family for the first time in Italy, I could not have hoped for a better guide. We had fun, we discovered amazing vineyards, plus Andrea took the time to give us a training on wine tasting technique which made us appreciate it even more. His knowledge of Italian history is quite impressive. Our 2 vineyards visits were awesome with Catherina and Alicia as hosts. Thank you so much for an amazing memory.

This Brunello wine tour was extra special with Matteo as we experienced superb wine and food along with wonderful countryside scenery. Matteos extensive knowledge and friendly personality made for a wonderful day. Many highlights to remember.

This Brunello tour was very interesting. Our driver for just the 2 of us--no one else signed up I guess, was intelligent and passionate about the wine in this area. He gave us a very in depth history lesson about the area and the wine there. We appreciated that a lot. Now for the wines. The first stop was excellent. We had a lovely tour of the winery and moved on to the tasting. The wines we tasted were excellent BUT this wine is best with some food. It would have been lovely to have a bit of food to taste with the delicious big reds. A bit of salami, cheese and bread??? I mean we paid $500 for the 2 of us to do this tour. I thought that we could have had a little more to ea there. But the wines were wonderful and we ordered some to ship home. Then we went to the next one--and the last one. This is were we had lunch too. Ok, we were there to drink Brunellos but this winery had sold out of the 2018 Brunellos so we could not taste any! What??? We were given extremely teeny tastes of the 2019--not even released yet because it is too early--albeit by only a couple months but still! The tastings were very small and even with lunch we did not get a glass of wine to drink with our very nice lunch. We were then given some other tastings and a small tasting of one of their neighbors brunellos. HUH??? Very very disappointing. Why did we go there and not to another winery that had some 2018s to taste? Why didn't we get to taste a 2017 or '16? We paid premium prices for this tour--more than I have ever paid before and we have done many around the world--Argentina, Australia, Spain, Portugal, of course in US too--but this felt like a rip off. Our tour ended with an hour in Montecino. We walked around a bit and then went to a wine bar and ordered a glass of wine. We had not had a proper glass all day. We don't drink to get drunk, buzzed, etc. But we expected a glass of wine with lunch--right? We enjoyed parts of it very much and our driver was excellent but come on, let us drink some Brunello. Cannot recommend this tour. It was not a good value for us at all.

We are wine lovers and lovers of Italy. This tour was all that we could have hoped for, and more! Mateo KNOWS wine. Everything about wine and an encyclopedia on Italy. His great knowledge, warmth, and humor added to the experience. And the vineyards we visited were perfect! I have already reached out to friends who are traveling to Tuscany next week and told them they have to book this tour! 🍷

I loved the wineries selected by the tour group! Each one was unique and beautiful! Rafaela provided a great experience; we never felt rushed and appreciated going to a small uncrowded winery. The wines and information was totally what we were looking for; the views were spectacular and our lunch was delicious!

WOW! What an amazing experience. This was the first wine tour we’ve been on in Italy. When we were first picked up by Filippo he greeted us with a smile and a positive attitude. It was an hour and a half ride to the location but the great conversation and background from Filippo made the ride feel like only 30 minutes. The two wineries we visited were amazing and Filippo gave us great insight into the wines on top of the knowledge that the wineries provided us. We instantly felt like we were friends with him after knowing him for only a few hours. I highly recommend this tour if you want the Tuscany experience. We cannot wait to book another tour with Filippo in the future!