Can anyone give advise and/or recomendations as to which wineries give tours and tastings in Tuscany, south of Florience. I have not been to Italy but have taken tours of wineries in Napa Valley. We would like to do the same thing while visiting later in the summer.

Tuscany's great wine is Brunello from Montalcino. I have toured the Barbi cellar a dozen years ago. Fattoria Barbi is a few km. south of Montalcino. I assume if you ask locally there would be many Brunello wineries with tours.

My wife and I toured parts of the Chianti region four years ago, and were enchanted with the countryside, the food, the wine, and the people. However, we found that for the most part their wineries do not operate at all like those in Napa, Sonoma, etc. The tasting hours and days may be limited, and it is often necessary to arrange in advance to have a tour and/or tasting. As well, many of the wineries are located on back roads, and may be poorly marked and easy to miss. (Imagine,if you will, the antithesis of the Coppola Winery.) The message is that you need to do some homework to locate and contact wineries in the regions that you are visiting, preferably before you head out for your tastings. Getting information from the locals is also a very good idea.

Some selections of local wines are often available for tasting ("degustazione") at enotecas in towns or cities in the various regions.

I wish you enjoyable travel and tasting!

thank you

Indeed - mrt - trying to "crack the nut" of how to get a winery tour and tasting can be qutie frustrating, as the winery websites do not pop up on standard search engine querries and the translation into English leaves one wondering what they were trying to say. One suggestion is that many hotels of the region have some "special " contacts among friends and may be able to make speacial arrangements for you upon arrival - I also found this resource:
http://www.stradavinonobile.it/new/ivini.en.php
There is a 3 hour tour - (mens chorus repeat; "a three hour tour") in the small city of Montepulciano that was sublime. We visited two excellent local wineries in the region, famed for their Vino Nobile di MOntepulciano, which is a rival of Brunello. The way I found this resource was to ping the websites, if any, of the entotecas of the city, then I found the reference to this "strada" which is sort of their trade association, then I found this tour. Regardless, here is a nice tip: if one envisions a triangle with one point pointing sraight down and the other two points one the twons of Montepulciano and Montalcino, within the triangle is the region known as the "Val d'Orcia" which has, IMHO, the most awesome scenery for a day drive in the countryside, of anywhere in Europe. I hope this helps.

Castello Di Verrazano offers tours. http://www.verrazzano.com/en/programmes-wine-tours/

I LOVE that stradavinonobile site...they don't list any example of cost, however. What is a ballpark estimate?

We toured Verrazano several years ago and very much enjoyed it. At that time the cost was about $25 per person for a tour, tasting and light lunch. I think they have revised their tours but it is very easy to find out that information if you email them

This year we are touring Caparzo because we are staying South of Montepulciano.
A three wine tasting and a lunch is E18 per person. You can email Ewa Forslund and she responded to my inquires quite promptly. I understand it is a beautiful property and some parts were featured in the movie "Letters To Julliet".
[email protected]
We are not going until August so I cannot give an opinion.

u-busted,

i had the same question, but if you go to the utilities button, there is a pdf file in english and Italian which gives the prices.

it's just well hidden!

Just double checke dmy notes - our afternoon tour of two wineries was 26 Euros per person. You can also email: [email protected]
and they were quite good at offering suggesitons,additional info, and directions.

We are planning on visiting the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino because they are famous for thier wines. I don't want to go our a formal tour , viaa bus, I was hoping to find a few wineries that show you thier process and provide tastings.