Top wine cellars in Montepulciano

Drinking red wine in Montepulciano

There are so many good reasons to visit Val D’Orcia and, particularly, the city of Montepulciano, but the wine cellars of this beautiful area of Italy are among the best ever. Not only because most of these wines have gained the DOC or DOCG mark, but also for all the typical Tuscan products that can be tasted with them during tastings organized by  local cellars. Let’s find out which are the ones in Montepulciano to visit at any cost.

Tasting among the vineyards

Located among the rows of award-winning grapes arranged in an amphitheatre, Borgo Tre Rose Hotel in Montepulciano, of medieval origin, has a long winemaking tradition. And you can discover it not only during your stay in the rooms or apartments of this refined structure, but also through one of the guided tours of the cellars with a final tasting of the different wines surrounded by the barrels or on the panoramic terrace together with local products.

In addition, you can visit the vineyards from which the Salterio red wine, the Vino Nobile (which owes its name from being intended for the tables of nobles) DOCG Simposio or Santa Caterina, and Vin Santo di Montepulciano are made.

Discovering an ancient cellar

In the main square of Montepulciano, under the historic Palazzo Contucci, there is the homonymous wine cellar dating back to 1200 and long-time producer of Vino Nobile DOCG and Vino Rosso di Montepulciano DOC, Bianco della Contessa, Sansovino and Vin Santo.

The cellars – built on 3 floors below the street level – can also be visited with the possibility of discovering the rooms of the Palace with frescoes of the 18th century as well as the interior courtyard of the 16th century. The wine tasting takes place in a room set up for the occasion and periodically you can also taste the old bottles of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG kept in the private reserve of the family.

The wines of the “Cathedral”

A wine cellar into the tuff with large arches and a big equestrian staircase to access it. Under Palazzo De ‘Ricci of the Renaissance period, the De ‘Ricci winery, in three naves divided by pillars and similar, indeed, to a Roman-Gothic cathedral, houses the wine obtained with the Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Malvasia, Grechetto and Trebbiano grapes inside large oak barrels.

This winery offers the chance to take a tour of the cellar with a tasting of these wines with Tuscan products a stone’s throw from Piazza Grande in the highest part of the city.

The wine cooperative between history and innovation

In the two cellars of the cooperative of agricultural producers ‘Vecchia Cantina di Montepulciano’, you will be discovering the processing of grapes up to the bottling and aging in the wood of wines.

There are tours with tastings of typical products with the three brands of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG produced in the historic cellar, which houses 160 oak barrels in an underground tunnel visible through a window from the outside and in the modern cellar that houses 250 oak barrels and French oak barrels in a large underground structure topped by cross vaults.