We will be in Siena and Tuscany Region next week. Can you reccomend the best driving route of the all the vineyards or tour?
Thanks

While I cannot imagine a "best winery" any more than a "best restaurant" (too much in the eye of the beholder) -- I once cited one good website, and at least one alternative viewpoint to "winery touring" on this thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34369615

I'm not saying that visiting wineries is a bad idea. There just might be "as good" (or better?) ways to sample wines by spending an afternoon in a GOOD enoteca.

Best wishes,

Rex

Rex,

What is an enoteco? Need to know as we are headed that way the middle of October! Thanks, Sasi

We visited the Badia a Coltibuono winery in April 2002, due to a personal connection, and it turned out to be a wonderful winery. Nice gift shop where you can do some wine tasting and check out the colorful painted ceramics.

http://www.coltibuono.com/0index.asp?lingua=ing

Oh my--so many ! But they are by region.
The chianti loop has dozens--Capo listed a very good one. I guess my favorites are in the Montalcino region. Try Poggio Antico and Castello Banfi south of Montalcino. The best enoteca is in the fortezza in Montalcino. Tuscany is a big place. We will be back there for 2 weeks in Oct.

Bob, have you visited Coltibuono? If so, why? Did you just happen upon it, or was it recommended to you? Grazie!

An enoteca is a wine shop (and frequently more); often with a wine "bar" and even serving small snacks to be enjoyed as you sample wines.

We were in the same region last month. We took S222 from Siena through Chinati and passed many vineyards. At the recommendation of our hotel, we visited Castello d'Albola (just passed Radda), took their tour and tasting - it was great. I'll top my trip report for you as there is more detailed info as well as a web adderss to visit to get a map of the region with all the vineyards listed. Have a wonderful trip.

Thanks, Rex, we will be looking forward to the wine shops! And our trip...we will be there from October 2 til 26th! Can't wait. Sasi

Capo,
Yes, and have read about it for years. We will return next month as we meander from Fiesole to Montefollinico.

here's the website:
http://monterinaldi.it/en/ - email them with your address and they'll send you a GREAT map of Chianti that we used while we were driving through the area. It even has the vineyard we visited on it.

Capo, I visited Badia a Coltibuono two times, each time arriving just after the last tour of the day. Cannot get my group starting out early enough! But I wanted to see it because of the Cooking School and the beautiful book of Tuscan cooking I have which was written by the woman whose family runs the place. We love the grounds and the shop is great, with tastings and lovely ceramics.

Peggy, the primary reason we went there was because my girlfriend's stepfather, a minister, had performed the marriage of an Italian guy who works there and his American wife. She wasn't there, but he was and it was great to have that kind of a personal connection. Only later did we learn about the well-respected cooking school. The ceramics are very nice, aren't they?

Thanks, Bob. If Antonio is there, say "Hi."

Capo: How nice for you. When we found the restaurant closed, we asked to sit at the barwhich we did. We had something, can't remember if wine or caffe, but we had awonderful conversation with the "bar tender" about wines, the restaurant, beef, the kind of cows that their steaks are from, what they are fed etc etc. I mentioned that I had and loved the cookbook, and the young man tells me that the author is his Mother, he is the guy in charge of the place and how was that for a surprize. I love Italy and the Italians!!