My wife and I will be traveling to Italy and France late spring this year, and we are hunting for good wineries to visit. Less commercial, with more character, would be preferred. I love good Brunello, but find alot of it to be difficult to approach young. Was considering Castello Banfi, Biondi Santi, Castelgiocondo, Tenuta la Fuga, La Poderina, Vigna Pianarosso, San Filippo, and Canalicchio. Likely will only have time for 4 visits. We are open for Chianti, but would prefer something memorable. Thanks.
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We had a nice visit at Fontodi in 2009. Interesting setup at the time. Everything was gravity fed, no pumps. They even stirred the Flacianello in the barrels by simply rolling the barrels down the racks, which was at a slight incline. This is the barrel room:
I also enjoyed Viticcio, where we stayed at one of their Agritourismo apartments. We didnāt get a formal tour because it was in the middle of crush, but I got up every morning and walked around and got to see that they were doing.
Grandma Landini on the bottling line:
Thank you. Fontodi sounds like a good bet. Never had their wines, but I hear some are quite good. Their Chianti Classico Gran Selezione Vigna del Sorbo sounds great.
We visited MastroJanni and loved it. The vineyard manager gave us an excellent tour. Just the two of us. But the place is very hard to find. Glad we had an Italian driver to ask directions several times. Back several dirt roads.
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While not a big area by American driving standards, thatās a large range. Iām sure many of the below also offer a vineyard to bottle look. However, we forwent the play-by-play on how wine is made:
CCs: La Sala, Terre di Perseto, Poggerino, Masse di Lamole, Villa Trasqua
BdM: Le Chiuse, Baricci
Commerical but memorable: Volpaia, Bosco
YMemoriesMV
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I was in Tuscany just in last fall. Hereās a travelogue of the places we went to:
Tl;dr - Montenidoli in San Gimignano is an extremely memorable place and totally worth the visit.
In Chianti Classico visits to Poggerino, Val delle Corti and Carleone are well worth it
When we were in Montalcino, Coste del Vivo was a terrific alternative to big name Brunellos
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We had a great visit with Daniele at Fuligni last year. Very interesting tour and then a solid tasting. The 18 was very good but the 19 is supposed to be outstanding. You picked a good year to go. Fuligni is right outside of the village. Le Ragnaie would also be on my list to visit. We couldnāt get in last year due to harvest but love the wines.
If you spend time in the village Enoteca di Piazza will have about 100 wines open and available to taste. Also pretty good food for a light lunch.
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Had a good visit here for Brunello:
And here for Chiani:
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One thing to note is logistics are quite a bit different between Chianti and Brunello. Montalcino is pretty easy to navigate, with the village being kind of the hub of the region with the wineries in various directions down āspokesā. So navigating there is pretty easy and efficient. Chianti, however, is a bit of a mess ā with 10+ different villages, very narrow roads and hills all around, it takes much longer than you might expect to get around. Two estates that are only 15km apart might take 45 minutes of travel between. So if you do Chianti, be very mindful of villages/locations and schedule carefully.
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friendly visit at Fontodi last year and great wines
Good recos in this thread and great advice
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Iād put in a plug for the āthird siblingā of the region, the generally undrevalued wines of Vino Nobile de Montepulciano. Similar to Montalcino in terms of ācentral village with wineries just around it as spokesā, Montepulciano was a real delight to visit in general - with Boscarelli stealing the show as a specific winery. We still order a case from them every year to be shipped home 
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Monsanto in chianti
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Thanks for all of the replies and recommendations. Very helpful stuff.
Have been to Montalcino several times. You are quite fortunate to be visiting when the 2019s are available!
The vineyards that my wife and I loved visiting are the small/medium sized family-run properties. Similar to your comment, the visit was all about meeting wonderful people who are passionate and make fabulous wine.
Whereas the large vineyards we visited felt more impersonal - stop by, taste, leave.
Our favorites:
Potazzine
Chiuse
Fuligni
LāAietta (reach out direct message on Instagram)
Collosorbo
Also greatly enjoyed visiting Podere Le Ripi, though has a different profile than above
Vineyards in Montalcino we have not visited (so canāt speak to it directly) but have heard great things: Baricci, Ciacci, Conti Costanti, Caprilli, Il Marroneto.
Highly recommend before you visit to buy the book on brunello by Kerin OāKeefe. Excellent history, overview of vineyards, review of sub-zones, etc that provides helpful context to the tastings and is a fun read as well
If available & if you enjoy scotch, try to taste grappa as well. Didnāt realize it until trip 2 or 3 and now feel this is overlooked. the grappa produced at the smaller vineyards can be really special. Just be careful driving after given its high proof alcohol. Potazzineās grappa is phenomenal / very special
As an aside, book restaurants & the tastings in advance. Lots of great options. Some of the towns are a bit touristy and werenāt the highlight at least for us, so if we were to visit again we would maximize time for tastings, restaurants and scenic drives and perhaps less time visiting towns.
Four tastings like you plan is a great number.
Enjoy the trip!
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In addition the the options listed, Sesta di Sopra is a pleasure to visit and easy to arrange as they allow you to book a tasting from their website.
Of the options listed above, Baricci and Fuligni were my favorite stops, and I enjoyed Conti Costanti and Ciacci.
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Macelleria Fallorni in Greve in Chianti is a great place for Tuscan style salami and cheese.
I would also recommend visiting Castello di Ama - the art installations here are really beautifully integrated into the property and the wines are lovely. Felsina is a great visit and I love the wines at San Giusto a Rentennano.
The proprietor Francesco Bonfio at the Enoteca in Siena helped me to make some of these appointments when I was there more than 10 years ago. ABOUT US ā Enoteca Piccolomini
buon viaggio
Erica
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