Contucci — Attraction in Unione dei Comuni Valdichiana Senese

This was the worst wine tasting I have ever been too. When we entered the tasting room, the employee told us that we had to see the cellars first. It was an odd way to be greeted to a winery (which in hindsight was the warning sign), but we're easy-going people, so we obliged. Maybe she wanted to upsell the older couple in the tasting room? Who knows. When we returned, the pourer didn't introduce herself, didn't ask anything about the wines we drink, but most importantly, she did not explain what the wine tasting entails. If you're familiar with wine tastings in America, then you know that a winery will typically charge a fee so that if a visitor doesn't buy something, their costs are covered. In this part of Italy, that's less common. The tastings are typically free and they hope you buy a bottle. We assumed that we would try a few wines because anything different than that would be odd since wine is so subjective. However, on our visit, the employee only poured one. She said that you can only continue to taste if you are going to buy. We are not just blindly going to buy a bottle. That's the whole point of tasting, so we politely left. Decent chance we would have liked one of the other types of wine and purchased one, but she didn't give us that opportunity. What's confusing is that I posted about my experience on TripAdvisor (KathleenReviewsStuff) and the person who responded essentially called me a liar. Feel free to read their response for yourself. (The irony of someone who wasn't there telling me I made something up is probably the highlight of this story for me.) Yet it somehow gets better. My husband decided to write a review on TripAdvisor to back me up, and the response he received from the manager literally confirms the point of what I wrote: "if one buys can taste more wines". A winery that does tastings based on that policy deserves a one star review if you compare what other wineries in Montepulciano offer. To give an example, after our weird experience at Contucci Cantine, we walked straight to a different winery where a lovely Brazilian worker let us sample several different types of wines they had. She didn't push us to buy anything after the first pour. On top of that, she talked about the different varietals they make, a little history of the company, and gave suggestions on what foods pair well with their products. That is how a proper wine tasting goes. Because we didn't get any of that at Cantine Contucci, my overall experience warrants a bad rating. Although the customer service from the pourer was one of the worst I have ever had at a winery, I understand that dealing with tourists all day gets annoying. What I don't understand is management's inability to handle criticism. TLDR: told to leave tasting room and come back later; only could try one wine; Proprietario overly defensive about my visit even though he...

We had heard good stories about this place, but were sorely disappointed.

As way of greeting, we were waved in to the cellars with an impatient gesture and hardly a word apart from the order to disinfect our hands. It didn't feel too welcoming, but ok.

After the viewing of the cellar, which was alright but nothing too special since there was no information whatsoever, we were waved into another room with the terse words "taste wine now?"

There, we were greeted by another woman. She was busy with an Italian group, but we were fine to wait a bit until she was done. Instead she pushed a glass of wine in our hands, told us it's name and went back to the Italian group. Since they were wanting to buy, again we understand they had some preference over us, but we didn't feel welcome at all. After the Italian group finished, she asked how we liked the wine. When my partner said it was good, but not his absolute favourite (we are dutch, honest and direct After all) she got annoyed and really rude. "Then don't drink wine here in montepulciano", took the glasses from our hands and rudely waved us out with a bye.

Needless to say, we won't be back and won't recommend his rude place to anyone. We felt unwelcome from the start and while I personally liked the wine, I won't spend a dime on these people. It's disappointing, apparently other people (mostly Italian apparently) had better experiences, but us foreigners were not their favoured customers. Better spend your time at other places in this gorgeous town, cause you're experience will be a lot warmer, more passionate and definitely...

Coming from Miami- we came across this historic winery in the heart of Montepulciano (open on Saturday and Sundays) and Wow were we blown away by its history and elegance in making great wines. We were warmly greeted by Ilaria and Adamo (latter being famous for being on Rick Steve tourist shows and tv as he has been with vineyard for over 50 years).

They have a self guided walk through their impressive casks of wine and barrel after barrel stacked high in downtown Montepulciano (hard to believe a vineyard can have such a location and be so successful and age so many wines in the heart of the city- quite impressive).

Adamo and Illaria Individually went through each and every single wind they produce with tasting and we were blown away by the elegance of this Vineyard. We ended up buying 12 bottles which could be shipped to the United States Miami at a fair rate And we decided that this was our absolute favorite Winery after doing a comprehensive tour of all of Chianti region and Tuscany now reaching our last stop in Montepulciano.

What an amazing experience and a company that has such a passion for their wines you must visit here and see for yourself it’s a one-of-a-kind visit in the heart of the city Montepulciano.

Before visiting see Adamo’s famous interviews with Rick Steve on youtube- he has a passion for this winery that i have never seen...