Family dairy at Montepulciano making Pecorino di Pienza since 1962, founded by a Sardinian family. Visitors can book a tasting that explains production, or an outdoor picnic.
Cheeses: Pecorino di Pienza
Website: caseificiocugusi.it
A semi-aged Pienza is slightly savoury with herbal notes, an aged one intense and well salted. Vino Nobile, Sangiovese with high acidity and a tannic grip, handles the salt and keeps the herbal notes in view.
Aged Pienza has an intense aroma and good saltiness. A Chianti Classico Riserva, Sangiovese with high acidity and the grip of longer ageing, has the structure to hold its own against that salt.
An aged Pienza with its good saltiness against a Vin Santo of caramel and dried fruit: salt and sugar set each other off, and the wine's high acidity keeps the sweetness from cloying.
Address: Via della Boccia 8, 53045 Montepulciano (SI), Tuscany
Working farm a few kilometres from Pienza with its own sheep and goat dairy making pecorino, caprino and ricotta from unpasteurised milk. Tours cover production from fermentation to ageing and end with a tasting.
Cheeses: Pecorino di Pienza, Caprino, Ricotta
Visiting: guided farm and dairy tour (about 2 hours, with a master cheesemaker), cheese tasting, cheese-making demonstration, restaurant with a panoramic terrace, cooking classes, online shop
Family dairy making sheep and goat cheeses: classic, fermented and spiced pecorini, with black pepper, walnuts or basil and pine nuts. Its shop is La Bottega del Naturista in Pienza.
Cheeses: Pecorino di Pienza, Goat cheeses
Visiting: cheese sales at its shop in Pienza
Maremma sheep dairy founded in 1957 by Duilio Fiorini, with an ageing grotto cut into the rock of Roccalbegna in 1962. Visits cover production, the grotto and a guided tasting.
Cheeses: Pecorino Toscano
Visiting: guided dairy visit (reservation only), natural ageing grotto, guided tasting of 4 pecorini (2 hours) or 6 pecorini (4 hours, with Roccalbegna village), dairy shop
Maremma farmers' cooperative making Pecorino Toscano DOP and other cheeses. It opens the plant on reserved mornings, ending with a tasting, and sells directly from the dairy.
Cheeses: Pecorino Toscano
Visiting: guided dairy visit by reservation on some weekday mornings, tasting of the main cheeses, direct sales
Family dairy that began cheesemaking in 1955, when the shepherds Alessandro and Remo Busti came down from the upper Garfagnana. It runs guided tours with tastings, a factory shop and a restaurant at Acciaiolo.
Cheeses: Pecorino Toscano, Ricotta La Pec
Visiting: factory shop, guided dairy tours of about 1 hour, ending with a tasting, ageing caves tour, restaurant Il Rifocillo (dinner Tuesday to Sunday)
Dairy at Poggibonsi founded in 1987 and run by the Morrocchi family, with a shop and morning visits that show cheese being made, followed by a tasting of eight pecorini and ricotta.
Cheeses: Marzolino del Chianti, Raveggiolo, Pecorino, Ricotta
Visiting: dairy shop, dairy visit from 9:30 (about 45 minutes), tasting of 8 pecorini and ricotta, bookable in the morning
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