Chianti Wine Tours & Tastings

Chianti wine tours: what you’ll taste and where you’ll go

Chianti Classico is the wedge of hills between Florence and Siena, and its wine has been protected since 1716 and branded with the black rooster since the 1920s. Today it must be at least 80 percent Sangiovese; the annata is the everyday wine, Riserva ages two years, and Gran Selezione, the top tier, comes from a single estate’s best grapes. Tours run along the SR222, the Chiantigiana, through Greve, Panzano, Castellina and Radda, stopping at estates that range from castles to family farms. Expect a cellar walk, a tasting of four to six wines, and, on most tours, the estate’s olive oil alongside.

The villages and the estates

Greve is the gateway, 30 to 45 minutes from Florence, with a market square and the region’s wine museum. Panzano, just above it, is known for its butcher and its steep amphitheatre of vines. Castellina and Radda are the higher, quieter heart of the zone, closer to Siena. Gaiole and Castelnuovo Berardenga complete the south. Small-group tours choose two or three of these; private tours let you name the estate.

From Florence or from Siena

Florence is the busier departure point and reaches Greve and Panzano fastest; Siena is 30 to 45 minutes from Castellina and Radda and is the calmer starting point for the southern estates. Many full-day tours from Florence add San Gimignano or Siena as a stop. For the Florence options in detail, see wine tours from Florence.

Half-day, full-day, Vespa or private

Half-day tours (two estates, about five hours) cost roughly 60 to 120 euros and suit an afternoon. Full days (three estates, lunch, a village) run 110 to 180. Vespa and Fiat 500 tours from Florence cover one or two wineries with more time on the road; e-bike tours do the same with less noise. Private driver-guide days start around 400 euros per group and are the way to visit a specific producer.

Cooking classes in Chianti

Several Chianti estates run farmhouse cooking classes, often combined with a tasting: pasta by hand, lunch in the vines, transport from Florence. If food leads the day, see Tuscany cooking classes.

When to go

May and June for the vines in full leaf, late September for the vendemmia, October for the colours. Greve’s Chianti Classico wine fair fills the piazza in the second week of September. Summer afternoons are hot; choose a morning departure.

Read next: 3 days in Florence for food & wine · A Tuscan wine route: Chianti, Montalcino & Montepulciano · Tuscan dishes explained · 5 days in Tuscany for food & wine · Best Chianti wine tours from Florence

How we choose

We list only experiences with a strong rating over a meaningful number of reviews and free cancellation where available, and we favour small-group and family-run hosts. FindEatLocal earns a commission when you book through GetYourGuide or Viator links on this page; it doesn’t change the price you pay. More about how we choose.

1. Essence of Chianti: three wineries and lunch

This is the tour to book if the wine is the point. Three family estates between Greve and Castellina, each showing a different level of Chianti Classico, from the annata through Riserva to Gran Selezione, with a proper seated lunch at the second estate and a stop in Greve, the region’s market town. The group is capped at eight, which is why it costs more than the coach tours, and the reviews, more than a thousand of them at a high average, say the money is well spent. Six and a half hours from central Florence. Check dates and book.

2. Chianti by Vespa or electric Topolino

The tour people talk about for years afterwards. You ride a Vespa, or drive a tiny electric Fiat Topolino if you would rather not, in convoy along the back roads south of Florence, stop at the lookouts the buses cannot reach, and sit down to lunch at a villa before a cellar visit and tasting. One winery rather than three, but a far better day. Vespa riders need a driving licence and some confidence; the Topolino is the gentler choice. Runs April to October. Check dates and book.

3. Seven Tuscan wines in a Florence tasting room

Not a Chianti tour, but the right booking for a lot of people: ninety minutes in the city, seven wines that put Chianti, Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile, Brunello and a Super Tuscan side by side with a board of cheese and salumi, and no bus. A winery can only pour its own wine; this is the one format that lets you compare regions before you commit a day to one of them. Check dates and book.

4. Chianti and castles from Siena

If you are staying in Siena, do not drive to Florence for a tour; the southern Chianti is on your doorstep. This afternoon tour visits a castle estate for a cellar tour and a seven-wine tasting with olive oil and balsamic, then stops in the walled village of Monteriggioni on the way back. Eight guests maximum and about five hours. Check dates and book.

5. An estate tasting for self-drivers

With your own car, the full-day tours make no sense, but many estates only open by reservation. This one-hour booking at a historic Chianti Classico estate gives you a cellar tour and a flight of the wines with the olive oil, at a fixed time you can plan around, for the price of a bottle. Check dates and book.