Azienda Agricola Palagetto — Attraction in San Gimignano

First of all, the place is absolutely gorgeous and really located, with delicious food served during the wine tasting!

However, we have been hugely disappointed by the experience there (we have booked the standard wine tasting with cold appetizers for an hour and a half). From the first moment we entered, the young lady who welcomed us seemed out of touch, and gave us a really brief explaination about the winery (1min max) while standing at the counter. When seated, we started to receive the food and wines, but without any decent explanations whatsoever. The basic information we received were the colour of the wines and that they pair well with everything on the plate... But what shocked us the most, was that she was using the exact same glases which have been served the previous wines, and that even without cleaning them. we are definitely no wine experts, but this is definitely a no-go, as the flavours and smells of the wine would mix. My friend even had to sip quickly the last drops in the glass on hurry before she pourred wine into his glass so that the wines wouldnt mix. When leaving, we werent even asked how we found the wines or any feedback whatsoever, we were just greeted with a "good bye, here is your receipt". I could have understood it, had the place been packed but this was definitely not the case

This might be a one off, as all the comments about this winery are exceptional (and believe me, i would have loved to leave a great comment). However, we left the place disappointed. We would have loved to hear more about the winery, when and how it has been created? What awards it has won (we saw some of them in the entrance)? What type of grape they use? What are the flavours of the wines?,... We feel like we would have had better explanations and indications from a local bar tender at a winery...

We hope these comments will be considered as useful and be used for improving the quality of place as it clearly has a...

My wife and I enjoyed a wine tasting at Azienda Agricola Palagetto on Saturday, 15 April. Julia provided exemplary service, walking us through four wines (two variants of Vernaccia di San Gimignano), I'Terzo (Chianti Colli Senesi DOCG), and Sottobosco (super tuscan) DOC. All four were excellent. I prefer unoaked whites and thus preferred the unoaked Vernaccia di San Gimignano over the oaked - my wife is just the opposite. I'Terzo and Sottobosco are both complex reds; we purchased a bottle of I'Terzo solely because we have already purchased several Super Tuscans at other vineyard estates and wanted to round out our inventory for the remainder of 7-week adventure here. There is only one reason for 4 stars and not 5 stars, and I admit it's rather unfair, but it's that Azienda Agricola Palagetto is quite large (producing approximately 350,000 bottles/year per Julia) compared to the 35,000 and 70,000 bottles of two other small family-owned and operated estates we recently visited in Umbria and Tuscany, the one offering five different bottles with the other offering seven wine choices; Palagetto has over 20 wines from which to choose. I'm confident Luano started off much smaller too, and growth only comes with extremely hard work, perseverance, and dedication to quality. The two smaller vineyards simply exhibited slightly more passion and enthusiasm during our visit - if they too grow with the success of Palagetto, that might change. (I am unsure as to what the 'average' family vineyard size is in Italy - we may have simply found two small anomalous vineyards.) Again, truly 'splitting hairs' - we would not hesitate to return to...

So nice enough place, pretty close to San Gimignano. Small, family owned and I think somewhat unique, as the daughter is running her own label (Arianna) out of there also. They do olive oil tastings and they harvest honey also. The vernaccia was good and the sottobosca was notable. We were not able to get the tour as it was sold out, but we did the tasting. I think the tour was sold out as they had two very large groups come in close to one another. As a result, we were a bit of an afterthought. I understand the situation, but probably not the best day to visit them. People were very friendly, I give them that, and the charcuterie they served with the tasting was good. The fennel salami was actually the star of the whole thing! It was quite loud due the big groups, so difficult to hear, and they were apologetic, so give them that. If you are around the area and want to swing in, I would not steer you away, it is good enough place. Note the spumanti was good, a nice table wine sipper with friends I think. One thing I will say is that is...