Snail Award Wineries in Tuscany You Can Visit

Snail award wineries in Tuscany are the estates Slow Food’s Slow Wine guide singles out for how they farm and work, not just for what ends up in the bottle. The 2027 edition gives the Snail to 34 Tuscan producers. Many of them are small and work by appointment only, a few have no visitor program at all, and some are easy to plan a day around. These eight are the ones you can actually visit.

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What the Slow Wine snail actually rewards

Slow Wine scores wine differently from the 100-point guides. Its editors visit the cellars, and the guide weighs adherence to terroir, value for money and the environmental sustainability of production alongside what is in the glass. The Snail is the award for the wineries that best interpret Slow Food’s values: it rewards a way of farming and of running an estate, not a single wine.

The guide hands out two other symbols. The Bottle goes to estates that made consistently excellent wines in the year of tasting, and the Coin marks good value for money. All three are explained, with the full 2027 Tuscan list, in our preview of the Slow Wine Guide 2027.

One thing the Snail does not mean is a certification. Many of these estates are certified organic or biodynamic, and we say so below where we could check it, but the symbol itself is an editorial judgment. If labels matter to you, our guide to organic vs biodynamic vs natural wine explains what each one guarantees.

How we chose these snail award wineries in Tuscany

We started from the 34 Tuscan names on the Snail list published by Slow Food in September 2026, then kept only the estates that publish a way to visit: a bookable tour, a tasting by appointment with a contact on the estate’s own website, or both. That rule removed more than half of the list, including several of the most admired names, which simply do not take visitors.

From what was left, we picked eight that spread across Tuscany’s main wine areas, so the list works whether you are based in Chianti, in Montalcino or on the coast. The order is geographic, not a ranking. Visit formats and prices change from season to season, so treat the details below as a starting point and confirm them with the estate when you book.

Chianti Classico and Chianti Rufina

1. Badia a Coltibuono — Gaiole in Chianti

A former Vallombrosan abbey in the woods above Gaiole, where wine has been made since the eleventh century. The estate’s wines and olive oils are organic, and the visit takes in the abbey, the old cellars, the cloister and the Italian garden. It is the easiest Snail estate in Tuscany to visit without planning weeks ahead.

The standard visit and tasting lasts an hour and pours three Chianti Classico wines for €30 per person; a 90-minute version adds a fourth wine and homemade schiacciata for €35, and a private two-hour visit with five wines costs €75. There is a restaurant for lunch and, unusually for this list, rooms inside the abbey: guests sleep in the old monks’ cells or in apartments in the estate buildings. Prices are from the estate’s booking shop.

2. Monteraponi — Radda in Chianti

A small estate built around an old hamlet in the hills outside Radda, one of the higher and cooler corners of Chianti Classico. Its Sangiovese is lean, fragrant and built for the long haul, and its wines are presented as organic. This is where you go to understand why Radda has become the most talked-about corner of the Classico zone.

Visits are guided and short, about an hour with a walk through the vines and the cellar and a tasting of four to six reds, run in English. Book well ahead in spring and autumn: Monteraponi is a working farm, not a tasting room with walk-in hours. If you want to stay nearby, our guide on where to stay in Chianti covers Radda and Gaiole.

3. Fattoria Selvapiana — Rufina

Northeast of Florence, in the Sieve valley, Selvapiana is the reference estate of Chianti Rufina, a cooler and less visited zone whose Sangiovese ages for decades. The farm holds an ICEA organic certificate, and its single-vineyard Bucerchiale is one of the classic bottles of the region. It is also the closest estate on this list to Florence, under an hour by car.

Visits and tastings are by appointment only, arranged by phone or email through the estate’s website. There is no published tour menu: you agree the format with the family, so ask for the cellar and the Vin Santo when you write.

San Gimignano and the Pisa coast

4. Montenidoli — San Gimignano

A hilltop estate of about 200 hectares facing the towers of San Gimignano, run by Elisabetta Fagiuoli. Montenidoli is best known for Vernaccia di San Gimignano, the white wine of the town, made in several styles that show how far the grape can go when it is taken seriously. It also makes Sangiovese and a rosé.

Tastings are by booking, through the estate’s website or by phone. A related farm stay, Agriturismo La Fidanza, offers rooms on the property, which makes Montenidoli one of the few Snail wineries where you can sleep among the vines. It works well as a half day out of Florence or Siena.

5. Caiarossa — Riparbella

In the hills behind the coast of the province of Pisa, north of Bolgheri, Caiarossa farms 67 small plots with ten grape varieties and works biodynamically, which it describes as a philosophy as much as a method. The cellar is a vertical, gravity-fed building cooled naturally and designed according to feng shui principles, and it is worth the visit on its own.

The estate runs visits and tastings for the public; book through the contact page of its website. Combine it with a day on the coast: Riparbella is a short drive from the sea and an easy drive from Bolgheri, which makes it a good counterpoint to the Sangiovese estates inland.

Montalcino, Montepulciano and Cortona

6. Col d’Orcia — Montalcino

Col d’Orcia takes its name from the hill above the Orcia river, on the southwestern edge of the Brunello zone near Sant’Angelo in Colle. It is certified organic and an Equalitas sustainable winery, and its cellars hold more than 50,000 bottles of older Brunello vintages, which is what makes a tasting here different from most.

Guided visits run about an hour and end with a tasting and Tuscan bites; English and Italian are offered. There is also a farm shop with the estate’s organic oil and produce. For more cellar doors in the same zone, see our Brunello tastings in Montalcino, and for rooms, our Montalcino estates with rooms.

7. Avignonesi — Montepulciano

The largest name on this list, and one of the clearest cases of a big estate converting entirely: Avignonesi is certified organic and biodynamic (Biodyvin), vegan certified and a B Corporation. Its home for visitors is Le Capezzine, in the Valdichiana below Montepulciano, and its Vin Santo is famous enough to justify the trip by itself.

The menu is the broadest of the eight. A seated tasting pours four wines, with Vin Santo as an extra; the visit and tasting adds a walk through the La Stella and La Tonda vineyards; and the Grand Experience pairs a vineyard and cellar tour with a three-hour lunch and nine wines. There is also a summer aperitivo and a cooking class. Everything is booked online on the estate’s website.

8. Stefano Amerighi — Cortona

The outlier: a Syrah grower in Cortona, at the eastern edge of Tuscany, farming organically and biodynamically on the slopes of Poggiobello di Farneta. Stefano Amerighi is one of the growers who made Cortona Syrah a serious wine, and the estate still uses old techniques in the cellar, foot-treading included.

Visits last about 90 minutes and cover the vineyards, the cellar and a tasting of the Cortona reds, in English, Italian or French. Cortona is an hour from Montepulciano, so it pairs naturally with Avignonesi on the same day if you keep the tastings short.

Where to stay near the snail wineries

Only two estates on this list put you up themselves: Badia a Coltibuono, with rooms inside the abbey, and Montenidoli, through Agriturismo La Fidanza. For the other six, these are the places we would book, each within easy reach of the cellar door and a good base for the rest of the area. None of them is part of the Slow Wine list; they are here for location and comfort.

For Monteraponi: Castello di Meleto, a castle estate outside Gaiole in Chianti with rooms and apartments in and around the walls, a short drive from Radda. It is a winery too, and received a Bottle in the 2027 guide.

For Fattoria Selvapiana: Villa Pitiana, a four-star historic villa at Donnini, below the forest of Vallombrosa, with a pool and a restaurant. Rufina is about half an hour away, and Florence is close enough for a day in the city.

For Caiarossa: Tombolo Talasso Resort, a five-star resort on its own beach at Marina di Castagneto, with a thalasso spa and indoor pools. It sits on the Bolgheri coast, so one stay covers Caiarossa and the Bolgheri estates.

For Col d’Orcia: Castello Banfi, Il Borgo, the Relais & Châteaux hotel in the hamlet below the Poggio alle Mura castle, on the same southern side of Montalcino as Col d’Orcia. Our Montalcino estates with rooms list has more options around the town.

For Avignonesi: Villa Cicolina, a late sixteenth-century villa just outside Montepulciano on the Valdichiana side, with an infinity pool among the olive trees and a restaurant serving Tuscan food.

For Stefano Amerighi: Il Falconiere, a seventeenth-century villa below Cortona with its own winery, an Etruscan-themed spa and 31 rooms and suites, part of Relais & Châteaux.

Hotels chosen for location; check rates and dates on Expedia. Prices are indicative and set by our booking partners.

Planning a route between them

The eight estates cover a lot of ground: Rufina to Cortona is more than two hours by road. Two visits a day is the realistic pace, three if they are close together, like Coltibuono and Monteraponi. Our Tuscany wine country guide explains how the areas fit together, and the guide to renting a car for a wine trip covers the practical side, including Italy’s drink-driving limit.

If you would rather not drive at all, Selvapiana, Montenidoli and the Chianti estates are the easiest to reach with a driver from Florence. The rest work better from one of the bases above. For a single award winner where you can also spend the night, Badia a Coltibuono is the simplest answer: the visit, lunch and a room are all in the same abbey.

Related reading

Slow Wine Guide 2027: What the New Edition Rewards Where to Stay in Chianti: 7 Wine Estates With Rooms Brunello Tastings in Montalcino: 8 Cellar Door Visits