Does anyone know of good half or full day tours from Florence to the wine festival this year in Greve?

I just took the Sita bus. They departed fairly often and I seem to remember it was about 3 euro one way. I doubt it is much more now. Last time I went was 2011. The festival price was around 10 euro which gave you a number of drinks. There were some reserve wines that took more off your wine allotment than the regular Chiantis. There were also some vin santos to sample. There were booths from various vineyards with their oils and other products to sample. If you wanted to sample more than your card allowed, you could just buy another one. It came with a glass (actually a decent glass) , a thing to go around your neck to hold it and a booklet listing all the wines you could sample.

Thank you! My husband loves a Chianti classico. Did you find any special ones you could recommend?

There were about 100 hundred Chiantis to sample. There's space to make notes in the booklet, but I didn't. Some of the wines won't be available in the US.

http://www.expochianticlassico.com/

There's also the Cantine in Greve where you can sample wines, but I doubt you will want to after the festival. It can be quite hot in September and red wine in the heat at the festival isn't the best way to sample. Hopefully you'll have a cooler day.

http://www.lecantine.it/cantineUtente/index.php

I prefer the Brunellos in Montalcino over the Chiantis. If you are visiting Montalcino, you can sample at the Fortezza.

http://www.enotecalafortezza.com

There are also quite a few wine bars when you can sample the Brunellos. Enoteca Osticcio has great views and is a good place to sample also (order some food with the wine), but the Fortezza seems to have more flight choices and a bit lower priced (no views of the countryside though).

http://www.osticcio.it/visita.htm

http://www.osticcio.it/

Thank you all for so much help. It is perfect. Does anyone know how much wine I can carry back home? One or two bottles?

Best way to get there is by SITA bus. Buy two tickets for each person so that you don't have to hunt around for bar selling tickets to come back.

http://www.greve-in-chianti.com/en/2...e_festival.htm

There's a similar four day wine fair at nearby panzano starting one week later.

http://www.panzano.com/important-dat...-dates-eng.htm

Here's a good opinion on the relative merits of the two fairs:
http://tuscany-toscana.blogspot.ch/2...festivals.html

The amount of wine you can take back to the US is limited only by how much you can pack in your baggage. In theory there's an excise tax but since it would cost more to process than they collect, they usually ignore it. Be sure to cushion the bottles in your baggage well and individually, and enclose them in absolutely wine-proof plastic bags - they can burst due to rough handling, cold temperatures and pressure changes in transit.