The Essential Guide for How to Pick the Best Tuscan Wineries, for You.
Here at out of the box Florence’s love for wines it’s known and now we want to help you to make the best decision.
The best tuscan wineries is a guide for you to choose by yourself which wineries suit you.
On the internet you can find hundreds of guides for the best wineries in Tuscany.
Here at Out of the box Florence we want to explain to you how to select them, instead of just following the market trends and pick those 5 or 10 names appearing in the same websites.
Remember: Tasting wines is savoring wine producers’ stories.
Don’t end up in the best wineries but in a great winery with great personal stories and support small real producers.
Make your own decision, pick your best winery in Tuscany
How to select The best Tuscan wineries
First to make the right decision, it’s important to know the wine regions of Tuscany.
Knowledge is the key, the more you are informed the better decision you make.
(Facebook groups are promoting groups, no real infos in there)
Some link to our previous articles might help as well:
https://www.outoftheboxflorence.com/2023/01/04/wines-of-tuscany/
https://www.outoftheboxflorence.com/2020/11/20/italian-wine-certification-docg-doc-igt/
Here it’s the map of the tuscan wine regions:
http://westudywine.blogspot.com/2009/04/map-of-tuscanys-doc-and-docg-zones.html
When you know in which area of Tuscany you will stay, you can choose which wine region to Visit.
For example, I want to visit the best wineries while I am staying in Florence.
You have close by to visit ,the Chianti Classico by far the most known, The Carmignano (the area of the first super tuscan produced using cabernet sauvignon and Merlot blended with Sangiovese) and The chianti Rufina.
You have to search in their corresponding wine region what kind of wines they are making and if they suits your taste buds.
https://www.chianticlassico.com/vino/caratteristiche/
https://www.visittuscany.com/it/sapori/carmignano-docg/
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chianti_Rufina
Wikipedia can offer a great synthetic help to understand the wine characteristics
Where to find important info to select The best Tuscan wineries
Very important when you are about to choose the best wineries in Tuscany, is to know the single producers.
Where do you find information about wine producers?
Out of the box Florence loves small organic or biodynamic producers that are matching our standard of Ethics and Professionalism.
Out of the box Florence privilege family run wineries versus big corporation wineries.
Check all the wine fairs in Italy and check their names in there:
https://slowinefair.slowfood.it/scheda_espositore/
Check the websites promoting natural wine producers like Triple A:
https://www.triplea.it/it/123-produttori-vino
Check the FIVI, federation of Italian wine makers where by law they are allowed to ferment only their grapes: (the list of 230 small wine producers in Tuscany)
https://fivi.it/i-soci-fivi/?_tax_regions=toscana
Check the slow wine guide.
You can buy it on line: https://www.slowfood.it/slowine/ or check their website.
They even have a guide about USA wineries, have a look: https://slowfoodusa.org/product/slow-wine-guide-usa-2024/
Visit Tuscany promotes the small Eroic wine makers:
https://www.visittuscany.com/it/idee/la-riviera-apuana-e-il-vino-degli-eroi/
Searching VINI NATURALI or Biodynamic on wine shops online, you can find their names and then check their websites, like in these cases: https://florwine.com/toscana/
https://www.italysfinestwines.it/migliori-cantine-vini-naturali-toscana/
https://www.decanto.it/it/vini-naturali-biologici-biodinamici-toscana/ca-823
https://www.meteri.it/shop/it/71-vini-toscani
You see the wine producers in the wine shops and search their location where they make wines.
A great list of BIODYNAMIC wine producers in Italy:
http://renaissance-italia.it/produttori/
Conclusion
First, To find the best wineries in Tuscany you have to do some research. Don’t hop on the first website giving you 5 of 10 names on a list.
Second, The best doesn”t really exist. Exist only the good and bad ones.
For us the ones to avoid are those popping up on facebook groups, those producing millions of bottles, those you can find easily on the supermarket, those exported worldwide.
They are not bad in terms of taste, they aren’t special at all.
For us holidays are to do something special, not to do whatever is famous and follow the herd.
We promote good sustainable tourism and so we visit sustainable wine production and their stories.
Third, don’t ask facebook groups 🙂
Contact us
Stay awesome, do special things, act sustainably.
If you ask, we might have some good names for you 🙂
Love,
Out of the box Florence
