Historic Vino Nobile cellars

The cool smell of damp oak and tufa greets you as you slip down worn stone steps into cellars carved beneath Montepulciano’s Renaissance palazzi. Some vaults plunge over 20 meters, reusing Etruscan cisterns that predate the town’s brick facades by two millennia. At Contucci, inside a 16th‑century palace, towering botti guard decades of DOCG Vino Nobile; De’ Ricci’s cathedral‑like hall shows off ribbed arches and a spiral descent. Up on Piazza Grande by Santa Maria Assunta, the ridge catches a breeze that has long aired Sangiovese—here called Prugnolo Gentile—toward the Val di Chiana.

Collected from your hotel in Montepulciano or nearby Pienza, your Amani Limousines driver keeps a Mercedes at your disposal throughout the day. Short hops link Contucci, De’ Ricci, and Crociani without the uphill slog, then it’s a 20‑minute run to a Gracciano estate for a seated tasting and vineyard lunch while the car waits. Timing stays flexible—bookings handled, transfers buffered—and the return skirts the ridge road for a last viewpoint over the Val d’Orcia before drop‑off.