Wine Tasting

The grapevines of southern Tuscany rest in winter. You see them in soldierly rows around the hill towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino, tethered to stakes like crucifixes, brown, gnarled and seemingly dead. Not so. This dormant time in the life cycle of the grape is the beginning of rich and fruitful life to come, which even winter travelers can appreciate by touring wineries in the hill country about 50 miles southeast of Siena.