Wine Tastings, Winery Visits and Wine Tours in Romagna

Romagna wine tasting: wineries to visit from Imola to the Rimini hills

Romagna's wineries sit mostly on the hills that run from Imola, about half an hour by train from Bologna, to the countryside behind Rimini and Riccione. This page lists more than 30 wine tastings at more than 20 wineries across the Imola hills, the province of Forlì-Cesena, the Ravenna area and the Rimini hills. More than three in four last one to two hours, usually with 3 or 4 wines, and about two in three include something to eat, from piadina, the local flatbread, to cured meats. Guests have left more than 100 reviews. Lambrusco and the Colli Piacentini belong to Emilia, further west: Romagna is Sangiovese and Albana country.

Which wineries should you visit in Romagna?

Start with these six, which between them account for about four in five bookings:

• Cantine Zuffa, in Imola: an organic family winery in its fifth generation. Augusto shows you the vineyard and cellar, then you sit down to a meal with 10 wines, from sparkling to sweet.
• Tenuta La Viola, in Bertinoro: an organic estate making wine since 1998. You walk through the vines to a viewpoint over the village, see the old cellar and taste 3 wines with bread and the estate's olive oil.
• Fattoria Ca' Rossa, in Bertinoro: Massimo, the owner, takes you around the vineyard, then pours 5 wines with piadina, cured meats and cheese, and a sweet wine with biscuits.
• Podere Vecciano, in Coriano: from the vineyard to the barrel room with its Georgian amphorae, then 4 organic wines with bread and the estate's oil.
• Tenuta Carbognano, in Gemmano, 15 minutes from the sea: 3 wines with cured meats, cheese and piadina in a garden facing the vines.
• Tenuta Uccellina, in Russi: 3 to 5 glasses depending on the option, from Sangiovese and Albana to the local Famoso and Burson, with piadina and squacquerone cheese.

Four wineries add lunch or dinner, an evening aperitivo or a picnic:

• Zuffa's visit ends with lunch or dinner: antipasti, two homemade pastas, a main, a side and dessert.
• Pandolfa serves lunch in its villa with 4 wines and handmade tagliatelle, and at the Pandolfa pasta class you roll the tagliatelle yourself.
• Tenuta Carbognano hosts an apericena, an aperitivo that doubles as supper: 3 glasses or a bottle for every two, finger food and music.
• Podere Palazzo, in the hills outside Cesena, leaves you among the rows with a blanket, a lunch basket and a bottle for every two.

Where can you go wine tasting in Romagna, between Bologna and Rimini?

In four areas, from the Imola hills to the hills behind Rimini:

• The Imola and Dozza hills, in the province of Bologna but Romagna for wine. Besides Zuffa there is Assirelli, in Dozza, where a sommelier pours 7 wines with house-cured meats and piadina, by the fireplace in winter.
• The province of Forlì-Cesena, with more than a third of bookings. Bertinoro has La Viola, Ca' Rossa and more; Pandolfa, in Predappio, tours its vineyards by jeep and opens its villa, built in 1731; Marta Valpiani, in Castrocaro Terme: spontaneous fermentation, a walk through vines and olive groves above the badlands, and 3 wines with a farmhouse snack.
• The province of Ravenna: La Sabbiona, a farm stay and winery in the hills of Oriolo dei Fichi, above Faenza, pours 5 wines with cured meats and cheese.
• The Rimini hills, the easiest to reach from the coast: besides Vecciano and Carbognano, Cantina Fiammetta, in Montescudo-Monte Colombo, pours 4 organic wines in its garden with a view.

What wines is Romagna known for?

Sangiovese among the reds and Albana among the whites, plus Trebbiano and a few local grapes:

• Sangiovese: Romagna Sangiovese, once Sangiovese di Romagna, comes young, Superiore or Riserva, and has 16 subzones, among them Bertinoro, Predappio, Modigliana and Brisighella.
• Albana: in 1987 it became Italy's first white DOCG. It is made dry, off-dry, sweet or passito; Uccellina pours it, and it can be among the wines at Marta Valpiani and Assirelli.
• Famoso, also called Rambela, an aromatic white, and Burson, a red from the Longanesi grape: both at Uccellina.
• Rebola, the white of the Rimini hills: Fiammetta's Favola is a Rimini DOC Rebola.

When is the best time to go wine tasting in Romagna?

Between March and September, when almost three in four bookings fall: May is the busiest month, then August, with the coast in full swing, and September. Cantine Aperte, Italy's open cellar weekend, comes at the end of May, and at the end of October Ravenna holds GiovinBacco, a Sangiovese festival with more than 50 producers in the old town. Winter brings about one booking in ten.

Most of these tastings can also be given as a Romagna wine tasting gift voucher.