Brunello & Montepulciano: Cortona's Grand Wine Odyssey

An amazing experience! Our driver gave us so much history during our rides to each location. Both wineries were gorgeous and super friendly. Highly recommend this tour!

What a wonderful day. Michele was so knowledgeable about the wines and history of the area, we learned so much. We went to 2 small vineyards, on in Montepulciano and one in Montalicino with an hour stop in Pienza to grab some of the famous Pierino cheese. It was a beautiful drive and we totally enjoyed the wineries.

Tuscany is the home of many fine wines, and a great way to experience them is to take this tour. Our driver, Stephan, was very knowledgeable and made negotiating the twisting roads a breeze. At the end of the tour, we were the last passengers to be dropped off. Just as we approached our hotel, he got a call that the previous passengers had forgotten their phone in his van. This meant that Stephan had to go significantly out of his way to drop their phone off on his way home. He couldn’t have been more gracious. It was a great example of excellent customer service.

I 100% recommend this trip - from collection to drop off the day was just superb! The comms prior to trip were really helpful to help sort our pick up details and help with any of the questions we had. Our guide Michael was also really friendly, knowledgeable and passionate, and we were very lucky to be paired up with a lovely newlywed couple from America. The two featured wineries included in our trip were well selected to offer two different experiences, and it was great to visit independent and smaller operations rather than larger highly commercial operations. Visit 1 - beautiful location inside and out, amazing wines, friendly all-women team and producers (bonus points) and opportunity to see where the wine was made. Visit 2 - very intimate in that you literally sit down with the owner for lunch in his garden overlooking the vineyard eating delicious traditional food made by his mum with occasional visits from the cute family dog. Very passionate about his wines which are made in a very unique way and seemed to genuinely enjoy hosting guests. The 1hr pit stop at a local town in between the two was also a lovely treat. If booking, note that it is quite a long day from around 9am to 5pm with a lot of wine served and a later lunch at around 3pm so you might want an easy night to follow with a light supper.

Great experience! The Etruscan cellars of Ercolani Nobile in Montepulciano were very interesting and educational and our guide was personable and knowledgeable. The vineyard Paradiso in Montalcino was beautiful and the wines and lunch were delicious. Marco the guide was passionate and informative. The highlight though, was our driver Michaela who was funny, incredibly informative and had an amazing understanding of Tuscany’s history, geography and wine/vineyard knowledge. Would highly recommend this excursion when you visit Cortona!

Highly recommend this tour. Our driver was wonderful, stopping at several locations for pictures and information. Both tastings were outstanding. The first was extremely informative and gave me a better understanding of nobile di montepulciano. The second includes a lovely lunch after a tour of the historic grounds and buildings. I would book again just to relive the experience.

Wine tasting and lunch and a wonderful guide! The tour began on time and the guide made us feel special and knew the history of the region.

Michal was a great tour guide We loved our wine tastings and the lunch was fabulous. We even took a visit to Pienza. We drove through the beautiful countryside.

The wine tour was fantastic. We were taken to 3 very different wineries and our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the area and the wineries themselves. We really enjoyed our conversations with him. Would definitely go again!

We visited 3 beautiful different wineries. A castle, a small boutique organic and a winery which seemed to be in a cave. A lovely meal paired at the last winery in Montepluciano.. We were educated at all wineries and also spent an hour in Pienza wandering this beautiful town. Our driver was great, personable, knowledgeable and friendly. Worth it if you love wine and want to have unique tastings that the general public does not receive.