GRAPE TOURS - wine tours in Tuscany — Local services in Florence

I would like to begin this review by stating that Quentin was an incredible guide. He created an enjoyable environment and was extremely knowledgeable about wine and the Chianti region. He was polite, informative, entertaining, and a wonderful driver. I would take a tour with him any day. This negative review has absolutely nothing to do with Quentin himself. But here goes.

I strongly disliked the Super Chianti tour.

This tour essentially consists of shuttling you to three places for €200 per person: winery 1, the butcher restaurant, and winery 2. The first stop serves a small cheese platter, the second stop serves meat and wine, and the third stop serves wine and bread.

The primary issue with this tour is that this experience can easily be replicated by purchasing your own bottle of Chianti wine and taking it to any of the numerous rooftops around Florence and interacting with other people. There is no value added by the tour other than shuttling you to the wineries—but the wineries themselves are nothing special unless you enjoy seeing barrels of wine stored in underground cellars. You are simply seated at a table and served wine. There are not even very good views of the beautiful Tuscan landscape from these locations. Maybe this particular tour is for wine connoisseurs (which I am not) who are interested in the science of winemaking, but being taken into the dungeon of a building to be shown wine barrels and lectured on the science of oxidation is not my idea of a good time.

The other massive issue with this tour is that there are next to no opportunities for photos. It is the least photogenic tour I have taken in Europe. I was hoping to get at least one nice photo with me and my wife in the Tuscan countryside since it was our only opportunity to go there—again, €450 euros for the two of us—but the van does not stop at a single viewpoint or elevated vantage point for a photo opportunity, despite passing numerous possible points on the road. You are not not even taken into the interior of one of the vineyards—which was one of the highlights of a tour of Tuscany I took several years ago out of Rome. How does such an expensive tour not stop at a single vantage point to allow guests to take the iconic shot of the Tuscan vineyards in the background? It is perplexing to me.

This is an inexcusable oversight in my opinion. Even the most inexpensive European tours understand to allow their guests to have photo opportunities to preserve the memories from the day. There wasn’t any such opportunity on this highly expensive tour and it felt more like we were livestock being shuttled around to different buildings, and paying a premium for it, rather than valued guests being treated to an experience.

A final note about the butcher restaurant—the meat was fantastic, but there was limited interaction with Darrio Cecchina (the “famous” butcher) himself. He made a brief appearance in the butcher shop but barely said two words to our party. He certainly could have greeted our party or even explained something about the meat we were served. It felt rushed and underwhelming.

Again, this review has zero to do with Quentin, our guide. He was awesome. And the people we met on the tour were lovely. But I cannot in good conscience recommend this tour to anyone looking for a meaningful travel experience, especially at the high price point. I was excited for it but it was a total disappointment. The structure and the lack of photo opportunities totally killed it for me, and I would recommend a different company if you...

Long story short: Overall this trip was the absolute best day I had in Florence! Rebecca, Åsa, and Tom were more than amazing hosts and guides. I would book another tour in a heartbeat!

Entire story: I'm a pretty avid wine fan but Tuscany/Chianti have been one of the regions that I know least about. So, my wife and I booked a trip on the Super Chianti tour. Unfortunately, due to me messing up the timezones in my calendar, I messed up the tour dates and thought our tour was on Friday when it reality it was on Thursday. Thursday morning at 8:57 am I woke up and immediately realized my mistake. Within minutes, Rebecca called me. I was basically devastated, this tour was the one thing I really wanted to do in Florence. We chatted for a bit then my wife and I hastily got ready and hopped into a cab and headed straight for their office. Rebecca was more than supportive when we got in (we were flustered and rushed no doubt) basically our best bet was to grab a cab and meet the group at the first winery. An entertaining cab ride and 100€ later (80€ for the cab ride and 20€ tip because the taxi driver was so nice and accommodating) we made it to Corzano & Paterno and met our tour guide Åsa. We had missed the tour portion but, we had a beautiful tasting on the patio outside with an absolutely fabulous group of people. Really our group could not have been better! Our day really started to turn around from there on. We all jumped in the very spacious van (François as it was aptly named) and took a beautiful drive through the Tuscan countryside to the "Crazy Butcher" Dario Cecchini. We first went into the butcher shop where there was some awesome AC/DC pumping through the speakers. We had ample tastes of the house Chianti and there was a great spread of cold cuts and bread. I've never had salami as good as what I had there, delicious! After a bit of appetizers, we walked across the street and had lunch. The food was just blissful. Brazed beef, fresh vegetables, chickpeas, olive oil cake and coffee for desert, all amazing. I'm hungry thinking about it. Afterwards, we were treated to a bit of Grappa and we jumped back into François and hit the road. Another amazing drive through the countryside lead us to Renzo Marinai. Here we had a great tour of the grounds, took some unbelievable photos of the rolling countryside (the photos don't do the view justice, you'd just have to see it), went through the barrel room and saw some massive bottes, then had a marvelous tasting inside in a beautiful dinning room. Afterwards we took another quick beautiful drive to Greve in Chianti. There we stopped into a bottle shop and the group shared a delicious Chianti out on a patio in the heart of the square while a few grabbed some gelato as well. Afterwards, unfortunately, it was time to head back. We took a "locals" way back to Florence through the backroads which again, was just gorgeous, then we were dropped off back at the meeting point. Overall, I could not have been happier! The tour guides were amazing, the wineries and their employees were spot on and answered every question without hesitation, and of course we were in Tuscany drinking delicious wine. Life is not much better than that... Can't wait for...

Spectacular find for a wine tour in Florence! Booked this company because of its review ratings and we were so happy with the experience. This was a 7 hour tour visiting three different wineries in Tuscany, but that hardly begins to describe it. Our party was me, and my wife and our daughter. The trip started at the Grape Tours offices (5 minute walk from our B&B by Piazza Santa Croce, and easily walkable from anywhere in Florence). There were two other families (one American, one Swedish) and everyone was just lovely. We met our guide and wine expert, Ben, who offered coffee and went over the plan for the day. Next we boarded a very comfortable Mercedes minibus and drove into the Tuscan countryside. Our itinerary for this trip was to visit three wineries in the Chianti and Chianti Classico regions, but depending on the time of year and other factors, they have multiple experiences available. On the way to the first stop Ben gave us a very detailed and interesting explanation of the history of the Tuscan wine region, and a crash course in Chianti wines.

At our first stop we met Lorenzo, who managed the winery with his brother (who learned winemaking from their grandfather). Lorenzo was both knowledgeable and funny, and gave us a walk-and-talk tour of the vine fields (organic), the process (natural), and the cellars (traditional). Afterwards, we went inside and tasted 4 different wines along with meats, cheeses and olive oils.

Our second stop was at a farmhouse where we had a full lunch that included a different wine for each of the four courses. This was a full working farm that grew their all their own organic products (wheat, olives, honey, grapes, pork, etc.) and everything for lunch was homemade on premises. Meats, cheeses, honey, olive oil, pasta with sausage, polenta, pastries – I lost track, and we couldn’t eat it all. Just delicious.

The last winery was a more contemporary operation, and we tried yet another four wines. Each was better than the next.

Finally, we had a nice drive back as Ben gave us a little more history of the region, and were dropped back in Florence. The whole experience was really very well organized, informative, interesting, and most importantly a gastronomical delight. None of the driving legs were more than a half-hour or so. Every stop had restrooms. We always had an opportunity to buy bottles of what we tasted, and the pricing was “as delivered” to your home so you didn’t have to worry about either carrying bottles in your luggage or shipping it yourself. I thought I knew something about wine, but I learned so much more in just one day. Ben was a great guide. I definitely give a big two thumbs up for Grape Tours for anyone looking for this kind of experience...