Best Tuscany wine tours - Your Contact in Florence

I already wrote a post on the top three tours from Florence to Tuscany countryside, but today I want to focus on the Tuscany wine tours, trips from Florence which do not involve visiting beautiful cities like Siena or Pisa or sea landscapes like the Cinque Terre, but learning something on a typical product of our region, which means visiting cellars and vineyards, being explained the complicated process of winemaking and, of course, tasting. Tuscany is the top region in Italy for wine production and the most famous wine produced near Florence is the Chianti. Chianti is an area which includes the countryside between Florence and Siena: it is not an administrative region, but its borderlines have been determined by law even before Italy became a country, bu the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Laws didn’t just set the borderlines, but also the mix of grapes that must be used to produce Chianti wine (mainly the Sangiovese grapes). The process of winemaking, along with the composition of the dirt where grapes are grown, the different shapes of the hills and the amount of light that the various vineyards receive allow for the creation of a variety of wines with a very different flavour, even in a small area like Chianti. Chianti is a red wine, typically good with meat and other typical recipes of Tuscany. Read on to discover the best Tuscany wine tours.

Tuscan Villa wine tasting and dinner

Wine Tasting and Dinner at a Private Tuscan Villa from Florence

This tour is a VIP experience that you will enjoy in a very small group, usually up to eight. It normally has a cost of € 105/person, but the agency often offers special price. You will meet your driver in Piazza dell’Unità, very close to the Santa Maria novella train station. It’s the square with the Majestic Hotel. The start is scheduled at 5:45 pm and the tour has a duration of 3.5 hours. A minivan will get you to your destination, a beautiful 17th-century villa in the surroundings of Florence. Here you will enjoy a tour of the vineyards, with beautiful sights on the hills of Tuscany. The Villa’s winemaker will explain the process of winemaking, giving you an insight on the various kind of grapes used in the farm. You will then be offered four samples of limited-edition wines produced in the villa, two red wines, a white wine and a dessert wine. It’s finally time for dinner, in the beautiful garden of the villa (weather permitting) or inside: you will be served crostini (slices of Tuscan bread with various toppings), pecorino and Parmigiano cheese, cold cuts, pasta and a regional dish with meat and potatoes: enough to delight your palate, but wait, there is a dessert too! After this wonderful experience, your driver will get you back to central Florence, around 9:15 pm.

Book this tour >>

Small-group full day wine tasting tour

Small-Group Tuscany Wine-Tasting Tour from Florence

Among the Tuscany wine tours, this is the one I recommend for the true wine lovers. It’s a full immersion in the world of wine, and it’s rather expensive at € 120/person, but the price is right for what this tour has to offer. You will meet your small group (up to 16 people) at 9 am in central Florence to head on a private coach to the Chianti region, where you will visit two local wineries, including up to six samples of wine and several extra virgin olive oils, being given a full explanation of the winemaking process as long as tips on how to evaluate the grade of acidity in olive oil, which depends on how and when olives are crushed and by other factors, that determine how healthy an extra virgin olive oil is. After the winery visits, you will be served a three-course lunch at a typical Tuscan restaurant, with drinks included (good you don’t have to drive back to Florence yourself!), and then you will have free time to explore one of the wonderful villages of the Chianti area. After a scenic drive, at 3 pm, you will reach the departure point in central Florence.

Book this tour >>

Tuscany wine tours when you are on a budget?

Chianti Region Wine Tasting Half-Day Trip from Florence

Tuscany wine tours are expensive not only because the wine itself is expensive (at least the good one) but mostly because they involve transportation. If you are on a budget, you don’t have to necessarily discard Tuscany wine tours: just prepare to stay with a large group, and take advantage of this offer, which comes for just € 45/person. It’s a half-day trip from Florence to Chianti region which starts from central Florence (in front of Hotel Majestic) at 2 pm on a private bus and will get you to the Chianti region with a local tour guide. You will reach an ancient castle, where an expert sommelier will guide you through the cellars in the basement, explaining the winemaking process and showing you where grapes are crushed, matured and then bottled. After the tour is finished, you will take your seat at the estate to taste two samples of red wine and a dessert wine, the typical Vin Santo, savoring some typical Tuscan appetizers, like crostini, bruschetta, pecorino cheese and cantucci, the almond cookies that you are supposed to wet into Vin Santo. After you’re done with wine tasting, the coach will get you back to the start point around 7 pm.

Book this tour >>