Montepulciano Wine Tours

For a wine day built on Montepulciano, book VEDITALIA’s Tuscany, Montepulciano Tour with Wine & Lunch. You get 1.5 hours in the town, then a sommelier pours Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Rosso di Montalcino over lunch in a winery dating from the 1200s, and the afternoon is in Montalcino. It costs from $121 per person, runs 12 hours from Piazza del Popolo and holds 4.6 from 259 GetYourGuide reviews. Prices were checked in October 2026 for a real date.

For longer in the town itself, MORANDITOUR’s Montepulciano and Montalcino, on the Wine Routes gives you 2.5 hours plus an hour’s tasting at the same price, though it has only 14 reviews so far. If you would like Pienza as the second stop, City Wonders’ Tuscany & Montepulciano Day Trip with Lunch & Wines costs from $131 and is the most-reviewed tour on this site, 4.7 from 3,480 reviews.

Montepulciano is about 177 km from Roma Termini by road, roughly 2 hours 15 minutes without traffic, so each of these is a full day.

Quick picks for Montepulciano

• Vino Nobile with a sommelier: the VEDITALIA day, from $121, Montalcino in the afternoon.
• Most time in town on a coach day: the MORANDITOUR day, from $121, 2.5 hours in Montepulciano.
• Montepulciano with Pienza: the City Wonders day, from $131, with San Biagio and Brunello at lunch.
• Your own driver and the underground town: the private Tuscany day, from $432 per person when two travel.
• Lunch near Montepulciano without the town: the Pienza and Civita day or the 3 Regions Day Trip.

How long each tour gives you in Montepulciano

Prices are per person; the private price is per person when two travel. Ratings are from GetYourGuide.

The old centre climbs towards Piazza Grande, so 85 minutes covers a guided walk and a short look around, while 2.5 hours leaves time to sit down for a coffee or browse the wine shops. VEDITALIA warns of a slight incline, and City Wonders says some of the towns are steep. Two of these days, The Tour Guy’s and the 3 Regions trip, stop only at a winery or farmhouse in the countryside near Montepulciano, so book one of the first four if the town is the reason you are going. The Tuscany wine tours page compares the full Tuscany line-up.

Vino Nobile, the town’s own wine

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano became a DOC in 1966 and a DOCG on 1 July 1980, among Italy’s first. It is made from at least 70% Sangiovese, which the Consorzio’s own texts also call Prugnolo Gentile, with up to 30% of other authorised Tuscan varieties. The wine must be made and aged within the commune of Montepulciano for at least two years from 1 January after the harvest; a Riserva needs three, including six months in bottle. Vineyards sit at roughly 250 to 600 metres. Rosso di Montepulciano is the younger red from the same zone, released from 1 March of the year after the harvest.

On the VEDITALIA day the sommelier pours Vino Nobile. MORANDITOUR’s lunch comes with a glass of Montepulciano red and one of Vino Nobile. City Wonders’ tasting includes a Brunello di Montalcino, which comes from Montalcino, so if Nobile is what you want to taste, the first two suit you better.

The cellars under the old town

The Consorzio del Vino Nobile describes underground cellars beneath the historic centre. On Piazza Grande, Cantina Contucci dates its winery to the 12th century, older than the 16th-century palazzo above it. The tours here do not say which cellar they use, so do not book one expecting a particular name.

What they do describe: VEDITALIA’s tasting takes place in a medieval winery from the 1200s that holds a 2,000-year-old Etruscan tomb, and MORANDITOUR describes a 13th-century cellar with an Etruscan tomb too. The private day includes a visit to part of Montepulciano’s underground city, and one reviewer counted about 240 steps down, so expect stairs.

Montepulciano and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is a separate red DOC from the Abruzzo region, with its own Consorzio, and has no connection to the Tuscan town or to Vino Nobile, which is Sangiovese-based. If a wine list in Rome offers Montepulciano by the glass, ask which one you are getting.

Montalcino or Pienza as the second stop

Pick Montalcino if you want a second wine town. It is about an hour from Montepulciano by coach, and its whole municipal territory is the Brunello zone: 24,000 hectares, of which only 15% is under vine. Brunello di Montalcino is 100% Sangiovese and cannot be released before 1 January of the fifth year after the harvest. Both VEDITALIA and MORANDITOUR start there at the former convent of Sant’Agostino, home to the Temple of Brunello museum.

Pick Pienza for the setting. Its historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, it sits in the Val d’Orcia, inscribed in 2004, and the town is known for its pecorino. You get an hour there on the City Wonders day and 2 hours on the private day.5 hours.

Before you book

• Length: every coach day here runs 11 to 12 hours with an early start.
• Walking: the streets are steep and cobbled, and none of these tours suits wheelchair users.
• Language: VEDITALIA and MORANDITOUR guide in Spanish and English on the same coach, and some reviewers found the switching tiring.
• Driving yourself: Italy’s limit is 0.5 g/l, and zero for drivers under 21 or within three years of passing their test, which rules out a proper tasting for the driver.

See the three coach days side by side in the comparison table, read our VEDITALIA breakdown, or weigh a long Tuscany day against a short one in Frascati or Tuscany. When you have a date, check availability, because coach seats and prices change.