How much does a winery visit cost? 21.70 euros for a basic experience, 51.19 for a more complete one

How much does a visit to a winery cost? 21.70 euros on average for a basic experience (it was 20.17 a year ago, with an increase of 8% on the general data), and 51.19 euros for a more complete experience (it was 49.79 a year ago). Even 40 wineries are offering increasingly more “top” experiences on a sample of 550 wineries, at a lower or higher cost of 100 euros (it was 34 euros a year ago). All the wineries indicate a cost for a basic experience, excluding a reduced percentage for whom the visit is free (4.5%, a year ago it was 4%). And, talking about more accessible prices, only 12.5% foresee an entry cost of 10 euros or lower (decreasing compared to 15% of 2023). A curiosity? Even if only slightly, the average-cost is higher in Southern Italy (21.23 euros) than in Northern Italy (21.09), whilst in Central Italy is 23.35 euros (but it is influenced by Tuscany). But, if at least 30 euros are considered to be high (or at least not low) for a visit to a winery, even 131 apply that sum (24%). Going into the details of the Regions, as aforementioned, the price range is 26.70 euros that, on average, are spent in Tuscany, to 26.06 in Sicily, from 22.18 in Piedmont to 21.03 in Sicily. The comparative data sets Tuscany as the “most expensive” Region with average costs for a more complete experience reaching also 61.74 euros, well over the national average, whilst Piedmont settles at 49.92 euros. To update the “price list” is “Quanto mi costi …? La visita in cantina costi e statistiche”, the survey realized by Go Wine on the occasion of the new edition of “Cantine d’Italia” 2025, the “Bible” of the enotourist, unveiled today at Hotel Melià in Milan, and dedicated to companies that offer the best hospitality (the reviewed companies are 874).

And of which the companies which obtained the recognition of the “Impronta” of excellence for wine tourism are 268 (thanks to three factors: location, i.e. the place where the winery is located, hospitality, corresponding to the vocation of the winery to “open” to the outside to the public, and wine, indicating the productive profile of the company evaluated over time throughout its wines). And, amongst these, the wineries reaching the peak of the “Tre Impronte Go Wine” are 24, the special classification in which Cà Rugate and Masi (at its entrance in the guide), in Veneto, and La Raia, in Piedmont, adding to Piedmontese Ceretto, Fontanafredda, Castello di Gabiano, and Malvirà; to Bellavista and Ca’ del Bosco, Mamete Prevostini, and Convento San Lorenzo, in Lombardy; to Ferrari, in Trentino; from Badia a Coltibuono a Capezzana, da Castello di Fonterutoli-Marchesi Mazzei a Castello Vicchiomaggio, and San Felice (Allianz Group) in Tuscany; to Lungarotti, in Umbria; to Masciarelli in the Abruzzi; to Feudi di San Gregorio, and Mastroberardino in Campania; to Roberto Ceraudo in Calabria; and to Donnafugata, Planeta and Florio, in Sicily, enter. The wineries already present in the guide that obtain for their first time the recognition of the “Impronta” are 5: from La Vrille (Valle d’Aosta) to Anna Maria Abbona (Piedmont), from Butussi (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) to Valle dell’Acate (Sicily), and Quartomoro (Sardinia). And, still, the realities, that make their entrance into the guide, obtaining the recognition are 8: from Fratelli Alessandria Fratelli, and Tenuta La Marchesa (Piedmont) to I Vini di Emilio Bulfon (Friuli-Venezia Giulia), from Umberto Cesari (Emilia-Romagna) to Brancaia (Tuscany), from Pasetti Vini (the Abruzzi) to Graci e Palmento Costanzo (Sicily). And with Go Wine, that will award also the 10 Special Prizes of the guide, with the innovation of Prize “The winery realizing a dream”, to who realized important initiatives in his/her life and, then, thought to pay attention to wine industry, and it goes to Gavino Sanna, the most famous and awarded Italian advertiser, founder of cantina Mesa, in Sant’Anna Arresi in Sardinia, his heartland (today belonging to Santa Margherita Group): from Prize “Alto Confort” for the company hospitality of the year to Tenuta Montemagno Relais & Wines, in Montemagno in Piedmont, to Prize “Cantine Golose” for the comapny table of the year to Agriturismo di La Source, in Saint-Pierre in Valle d’Aosta; from Prize “Cantine Meravigliose” for the wine architecture of the year to Antonelli - San Marco, in Montefalco in Umbria, to Prize “Enocultura” to Museo del Contadino della D’ambra Vini d’Ischia, in Forio d’Ischia in Campania; from Prize “Autoctono si nasce” to Aglianico del Vùlture Caselle di D’Angelo, in Rionero in Vùlture in Basilicata, to Prize “Buono … non lo conoscevo!” to Tre Venezie Igp Piculìt-Neri di I Vini di Emilio Bulfon, in Valeriano in Friuli-Venezia Giulia; from Prize “Vini Storici d’Italia” to San Leonardo della Tenuta San Leonardo, in Avio in Trentino, to Prize “Gioacchino La Franca”, the recognition of “Go Wine community” for the experience in the winery of the year, to Moris Farms, in Massa Marittima in Tuscany.

Going back to the survey, realized on a sample of over 540 wineries, which is indicative, because it takes into consideration companies of all regions, and with a different profile, i.e. bigger and more structured companies also for staff organization, but also family-run companies, where the winemaker often plays more roles, including that of the hospitality of the staff dedicated to enotourists, to companies in which the cost of basic experience (the minimum cost to “enter in a winery” and to have a minimum experience, maybe tasting 2-3 wines), and the cost of a more complete experience, that the winery proposes inserting elements of particular suggestion and/or quality, were asked. Go Wine takes into consideration all these figures and this data to analyze choices, and trends of wineries from Northern to Southern Italy, an increasingly central theme for who does enotourism: the cost of the visit in the winery, important because all wineries, excluding few exceptions, indicate that prices for the experiences to be carried out during a visit taking the data that we enter the winery paying for a service, and not following spontaneous forms based on the improvisation, and on free anymore for granted. Therefore, there has been a long phase, for certain aspects also pioneering, during which, leaving from the Nineties, the concept of enotourism has progressively affirmed, in which the practice of the visit to the winery, in that period, was linked to occasional behaviors, based on spontaneity, with little organized wineries for that, and with wine enthusiasts that, little by little, increased in number and behavior quality. Looking for the winery not only as a mean of wine supply, but as a place to look for a meeting with the winemaker to receive knowledge elements to better understand where that wine that was tasted maybe in the city, outside the room and social context in which the single winery operates arose. Amongst the many voices, also Go Wine, more than 20 years ago, during the first phase of its activity, highlighted the necessity that this phenomenon had to be gradually made more and more professional and structured: in this context, the payment for a service was a necessary condition, in certain ways. This means that the visit to the winery, as a museum or a historical building are visited (by paying) in a wine territory, knowing in advance hours and conditions, so that one can make an organized touristic experience. Today, survey data outlines a complex situation which deserves more reflection elements. The price of the visit to the winery overcame what it was a sort of “entry threshold”, i.e. a way to make the entries to the wineries organized, by inserting the cost as a recognition to the availability of the wine producer at the reception, and as a form of selection for interested people. Therefore, the price of the visit is now becoming a sort of “second cost” - always increasing amongst other things – which places side by side to the almost generalized increase of the cost of the single wine bottles. The data of the new survey follows this direction, and can be compared to the data collected just a year ago.

The two costs are reported in guide “Cantine d’Italia” 2025 using two distinctive symbols: a wine glass for the cost of the basic experience, and a “double wine glass” for the more complete experience, a symbolism recalling what often happens in quality restoration, when the price of a basic menu is indicated, or of a more curated menu, or of menu of a particular profile. When communicating data, underlines Go Wine, “we specify that we go into more details for basic experience; it is the most common trend and indicative data to understand the behaviors of wineries. The cost for the more complete experience contains more variables: it is interpreted as a sort of major deepening of basic experience by some wineries, whilst for others it is an event in the winery that can reach sums also overcoming the cost, just to give an example, of a dinner in a high-quality restaurant”.

“Communication and accessibility are two strategic factors in this field - affirms Massimo Corrado, president Go Wine, and editor of the guide – the communication of the visit cost by the winery and the indication of which experience is practiced can only contribute to make the visit more professional, and create a bond between winemaker, and enotourist, so that, he/she is capable of informing as he/she reads the wines of the winery, and he/she informs about their profile, or vinification. However, one has to ask if it is opportune that the price is subject to continuous increases that can crash against the purchasing power of many people in the future”. A particular can’t be omitted: “if paying a price means recognizing a service, and an availability, it is also true that the visit to the winery has a peculiarity not to be forgotten: it foresees a “second moment” that is not observed, for example, in the visit to a Museum, or to a historical building, and that is the purchase of bottles in the winery. A practice which is valorized by the same wineries, during the first year of enotourism development to recall the potentialities of the phenomenon: But, if it strategic for a winery to promote presences of people purchasing wine directly, favoring immediate proceeds, and eliminating intermediary charges, then major attentions to indicate the price of the visit to the winery, avoiding possible excesses, are needed. These are excesses, and this is data, that GoWine noticed more times in 2024, impacting on a trend with a “double” increase: the cost of the visit to the winery, and the cost of bottles. A sort of a race to the top which could generate imbalances in the future.

The second reflection is about a positive evolution of the phenomenon arising from the behavior of many wineries: the analysis carried out by the editorial staff of guide “Cantine d’Italia” 2025 attest that companies are managing with an increasing awareness the theme of the experiences in the winery. The confirmation is found on the websites where, next to some recurrent voices of presentation (“About us, territory, wines, customer reviews, photo gallery”) the voice “experience” appears more and more often. In this way, a sort of double card qualifying the offer is obtained: the wine list that contains the framework of the production of the winery, and the “experience list”, i.e. the proposal of what one can do in the winery, and at which cost. “An impactful communication – concludes Go Wine by the survey – destined to generate economy and development, if one can manage figures (also known as euros) with measure and wisdom”.