Private Valtellina Wine tour

Here is what you will live

A long and intense day tour perfect for real wine lovers  that want to go off the beaten tracks. With this experience you will discover Valtellina, one of the hidden gems of Northern Italy. With its stunning alpine landscapes, its picturesque terraced vineyards built over centuries, the elegance of its wines and its genuine gastronomy, Valtellina, if not the most renowned, is one of the most beautiful and underrated regions in Italy. Valtellina produces almost exclusively red wines, made of Chiavennasca, the local name for the Nebbiolo grape, but different from Barolo or Barbaresco. Less tannic and powerful, the nebbiolos of Valtellina are more delicate, with a lot of elegance. Because of the topography and the terraces, mechanization is impossible and everything in the vineyards is done by hand, from growing the grape to harvesting.

Most Valtellina vineyards sit at altitudes between 230 and 765 meters (750 - 2500ft), on perilously steep slopes such as those over the Alps in Valais. This makes grape harvesting a time-consuming and costly task, as the incline of many vineyards is so pronounced that mechanized harvesting is impossible. Carrying out viticultural labor by hand accounts for roughly 1400 man hours per hectare per year, making the price of Valtellina wines sometimes as steep as the slopes themselves. Some of the steeper slopes, belonging to vignerons with finances to spare, have had small teleferiche (cableways) installed. This not only simplifies the harvest process but also speeds it up, minimizing the risk of grape spoilage.

With this tour you'll visit one winery in the morning, have lunch in Tirano in a very special cozy location and then visit a second winery on your way back.