Where the locals actually drink
Not the tasting rooms with the coach park. The glasses we'd pour ourselves.
There's a difference between a place built to sell you a case and a place people actually stand around in at the end of the day. Chianti has both; here are the second kind.
Bar Ucci in Volpaia is the whole village's living room — a local glass, a simple plate, a piazza the size of a courtyard. A few steps away, La Bottega di Volpaia has the terrace and the view. Down in Greve, Enoteca Falorni is touristy by day but genuinely great in the last hour before it closes. And Casa Chianti Classico above Radda is where you go when you want to taste seriously without anyone selling at you.
The rule of thumb: park below the hamlet, walk up, and drink where the person next to you is speaking Italian and clearly hasn't left in forty years.
Every place we mention is on the map, with what's open today.
Plan my day