Benvenuto Brunello returns to Montalcino from November 19 to 23, 2026, for its 35th edition. This is where the town introduces the Brunello vintage about to reach the market, alongside its other wines. The dates are confirmed, but the 2026 public tasting schedule and ticket prices are still to come. For a visitor, that distinction matters: five event days do not necessarily mean five days open to everyone.
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- Dates
- Thursday, November 19 to Monday, November 23, 2026
- Venue
- Montalcino, Tuscany. The Chiostro di Sant’Agostino hosted the 2025 tastings; the 2026 venue will be confirmed with the program
- Who can attend
- In 2025, press days by invitation came first, followed by three walk-around days open to trade and wine lovers. The 2026 schedule is TBC
- Tickets
- 2026 prices TBC; sold through the official event site
- Airports
- Florence (FLR) and Perugia (PEG) are the closest; Rome Fiumicino (FCO) has the widest choice of flights from the US
In this article
What Benvenuto Brunello is
Benvenuto Brunello is the annual preview organized by the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino. Producers, wine professionals, journalists and, on designated days in recent editions, wine lovers gather in the hill town south of Siena to taste the new releases of the denomination. It is a look at wines about to go on sale, not at the grapes picked a few weeks earlier.
That difference is central to Brunello. The wine is made entirely from Sangiovese grown in Montalcino, and the denomination’s aging rules hold it back for years. A regular Brunello cannot enter the market until January 1 of the fifth year after the harvest; a Riserva waits another year. The wines on the tasting tables therefore carry several harvest dates, even though the event takes place over a few days in November.
For travelers, the value is concentration. A walk-around tasting lets you compare dozens of producers without arranging separate visits across a large rural area. A cellar visit gives you what a tasting hall cannot: the slope, the barrels and the producer’s own story. They answer different questions. Our Tuscany wine country guide places Montalcino among the region’s other wine areas if you are deciding how much of a trip to give to Brunello.
Benvenuto Brunello 2026: dates and tickets
The Consorzio has confirmed November 19 to 23, 2026, in Montalcino, and that this is the 35th edition. The official event site already names the new edition, but its daily schedule and ticket links still describe 2025, so read those details as last year’s format rather than this year’s plan.
Last year the first two days were seated press tastings by invitation. The three walk-around days that followed admitted trade attendees and wine lovers, with tickets sold through Vivaticket. For 2026, the allocation of days, opening hours, prices and masterclasses are still to be announced. If your trip only covers Thursday and Friday, wait for the schedule before you book flights around the tasting.
The Chiostro di Sant’Agostino, in the historic center, hosted the 2025 tastings. A room within walking distance of central Montalcino is the safe choice whatever the 2026 venue turns out to be. While access details are unsettled, a refundable rate is the sensible way to hold the dates.
What to expect: the new release and how the vintage is rated
The Brunello due to go on sale on January 1, 2027 is the 2022 vintage. That follows from the release rule, and from last year’s preview of the 2021, which reached the market this January. The Consorzio will publish the full 2026 tasting list, including the Riserva and Rosso di Montalcino vintages, with the program.
There is a second calendar running alongside it. Every year the Consorzio commissions a ceramic tile for the harvest just completed, and it has nothing to do with a score for the wine being released. The 2026 tile is signed by Vespa, which celebrates its 80th anniversary this year. According to the Consorzio’s September announcement, it will be unveiled on Saturday, November 21 at the Teatro degli Astrusi, then set into the wall of the Palazzo Comunale alongside the tiles of past harvests.
The way the wine itself is judged has changed more. Older guides still mention a star rating for each harvest; the Consorzio dropped it in 2021. Under Brunello Forma, first applied to the 2020 vintage, it combines geo-referenced climate data, chemical analysis and blind tasting by an international panel of Masters of Wine (eight of them when the change was announced in 2024). The result is a written account of the vintage entering the market, not a number attached to the harvest just finished.
For a wine lover, the practical reading is simple. Use the panel’s statement as a starting point, then taste neighboring tables and ask each producer how their wine fits the year. Montalcino’s slopes, exposures and cellar choices produce differences that a single regional verdict cannot capture, and no statement will tell you which bottle you will prefer.
Where to stay for Benvenuto Brunello
Stay in Montalcino town if the event is the main reason for the trip. You can walk back from a tasting and go to dinner without driving on dark country roads after a day of Brunello. Rooms inside the walls are limited and parking varies, so ask the property about the nearest legal parking before you arrive. The center is compact but steep, which matters more with luggage than it does on a map.
An estate stay turns the visit into a wine trip, at the cost of transport. Castello Banfi, Castiglion del Bosco and the organic Le Ragnaie are among the seven producers in our round-up of Montalcino estates with rooms, and none of them is a stroll from the tasting venue. Check seasonal opening dates for late November, the route into town and how you will get back in the evening. A hotel in the countryside can be ideal for cellar visits and awkward for a night in the center.
Flying from the United States usually means landing in Rome or connecting to Florence. Either way, allow for the onward journey: Montalcino has no mainline rail station in town, and the estates are spread out over country roads, so most visitors arrive by car or with a driver.
Find a base in Montalcino
Compare rooms for November 19 to 23 for two adults, and check the cancellation policy while the public tasting days are still TBC.
What else to do in Montalcino that week
Give Montalcino more than the hours on your ticket. The event condenses many producers into one room, but a separate estate appointment puts the wine back in its setting. Book one cellar directly with the producer on a different day, and leave time to reach it: the roads around town are beautiful and slow, and the distances on the map are misleading.
In town, walk the lanes around the fortress and spend an hour in an enoteca, where you can revisit a producer from the tasting in a quieter glass. The Abbey of Sant’Antimo, below Castelnuovo dell’Abate, is a good counterpoint to a day at the tasting tables, and the Val d’Orcia beyond it deserves a longer drive. Late November is quiet season, so reserve restaurants and confirm cellar hours rather than assuming summer opening times; our guide to the best time to visit Tuscany wineries explains what changes once the harvest is in.
If you are arriving through Florence and want a tasting day before heading south, our guide to Chianti wine tours from Florence covers options that include transport. Chianti works as a separate leg of a longer trip, not as a quick detour between Brunello appointments. Keep the event and any cellar booking on separate days so neither is rushed.
Past editions
The 34th edition, in November 2025, drew more than 2,000 attendees and poured more than 370 labels from 123 wineries, according to the Consorzio’s closing report. About 100 journalists from nine countries attended the opening press days, followed by three walk-around days for hospitality professionals, sommeliers and wine lovers.
The wines presented were Brunello 2021, Brunello Riserva 2020 and Rosso di Montalcino 2024, alongside Moscadello and Sant’Antimo. It shows why the year on the bottle and the year on the poster never match. For a very different kind of Italian wine event, our Vinitaly USA guide covers the New York trade show, where access is reserved for professional buyers.
Benvenuto Brunello 2027: what we know
No dates have been announced for 2027. The pattern of recent years points to another preview in late November, and by the release rule it would present the 2023 Brunello, but neither is confirmed. Wait for the Consorzio’s announcement before building a 2027 trip around the event.
For this year, the fixed points are November 19 to 23 in Montalcino, a 35th edition and the unveiling of the Vespa tile on November 21. The days open to wine lovers, the venue and the ticket prices will appear on the official event site, and we will update this page when they do, and again after the event closes. Until then, make Montalcino itself the reason to travel, and treat the tasting as one part of the plan.
