A morning on the 9th of April 2026 in a converted granary above Greve in Chianti, with a broker who has placed villa rentals in Tuscany since 2004 and now runs a book of roughly 90 properties. We came in expecting a conversation about her villas. We left with a 22-year accounting of how the bundled wine-tasting tour has moved from a courtesy to a profit centre, why a four-estate day now commonly invoices a group of eight at €5,200, and which four legacy producers no longer accept the commission structure most brokers depend on.
By The Villas For Kings desk
Tuscany sells wine for a living. The region produces roughly 1.7 million hectolitres of wine a year by recent ISMEA figures, anchors three of Italy's most valuable DOCG appellations (Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico, and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano), and hosts a private-cellar visitor economy that, by the broker's own back-of-envelope, has grown from a niche service in 2004 to a line item that now sits on roughly 80 percent of the rental invoices her agency processes.
The broker we interviewed has agreed to be named in our autumn 2026 follow-up. For now we mark her and her agency. She is one of a small number of brokers whose practice predates the consolidation wave of 2014 to 2018 when several established Tuscany agencies (including the predecessor entities to To Tuscany, Tuscany Now & More, and The Thinking Traveller's Italian book) absorbed or displaced the regional independents.
What follows is the tasting-tour economy as she described it: the three-layer margin stack, the four estates that have opted out, the bundled days she will no longer sell, and the advice she gives a buyer who wants the wine days without the markup.
"The broker commission on a wine-day booking is structured the way the broker commission on a villa booking is structured. The estate pays the broker between eight and 15 percent of the gross invoice. The standard band on a four-estate day for a group of eight is 12 percent. On a single visit to a smaller cellar with a high per-bottle price, the band can climb to 15. The estate writes the cheque. The guest pays the gross."
"The commission is not disclosed to the guest. It does not appear on the visit invoice. The guest sees a number that looks like the estate's rate card and assumes the rate card has not been marked up. Most rate cards in Tuscany are now marked up. The guest pays the marked-up rate. The broker takes the difference. The estate keeps its net."
"I do not run my book this way for the wine days. I have a flat €120 coordination fee for the visit, and I tell the guest what the estate's direct rate would have been. The guest can decide. About 60 percent of the time the guest still asks me to coordinate. The other 40 percent book direct and I lose the fee. I prefer the system. I sleep better."
The second layer is the concierge or villa-side service fee. The fee is charged by the on-property staff or the agency's local fixer and pays for the transport coordination, the host on the day, the lunch reservation, and the after-tour logistics. The band is €40 to €80 a head. On a group of eight, that is €320 to €640 added to the day before the wine has been poured.
"The concierge fee is the layer the guest most often misunderstands. The villa staff is folded into the villa rate. The driver is hourly. The local fixer is the third party. The guest assumes the villa staff is doing the work. Often it is not. The villa staff makes the introduction and steps aside. The fixer takes the day and the fee. The villa staff is paid the villa rate regardless."
"The right test for a buyer is to ask the broker, in writing, who is on the day. If the answer is a name the guest will meet at 9.30 in the morning, the fee is honest. If the answer is vague about which member of staff is leading the day, the fee is mostly margin. We have lost three clients to that question. They booked elsewhere because the elsewhere did not get the question. They came back the following year." Our work on the villa housekeeper economy tracks the same staff-vs-agency confusion from the housekeeping side.
"The third layer is the estate itself. Ten years ago a private tasting was either free with a bottle purchase commitment or charged at a modest €40 to €60 a head. The visit was the marketing line. The bottle was the revenue. The model has moved. The visit is now the revenue line for most estates."
"A private tasting at a mid-tier Brunello producer in 2026 is commonly priced at €120 to €180 a head for the standard programme, and €240 to €380 for the cellar-and-library programme. Add lunch at the estate and the per-head number reaches €380 to €580. For a group of six, that is €2,200 to €3,400 at one estate. Two estates in a day and the bill clears €5,000 before transport, before the fixer, before my coordination, and before lunch in town if you skip the estate lunch."
"The estates priced the visit up because the demand was there. The visitor in 2026 is willing to pay. The buyer who came to Tuscany for the food and the landscape in 2010 has been replaced, in the high-end villa segment, by the buyer who came specifically for the wine. The buyer who came for the wine will pay the rate. The estates noticed."
"Four legacy estates do not pay a broker commission. The four are Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia), Biondi-Santi, Soldera Case Basse, and Salvioni. Each takes only direct enquiries. None of them are bookable through the standard concierge or broker channel."
"A broker who tells you these four are 'not currently accepting visits' is sometimes telling you the truth. More often the broker is telling you the visit cannot be coordinated through their commission stack. The visit is available. The visit is just not earning the broker anything. The broker's incentive is to steer the guest to a mid-tier estate that pays the 12 percent."
"I tell my guests about the four. I send them the email address and the timing window. About a third of my guests follow up and book direct. About two-thirds let it go because the coordination effort is more than they want to take on. I am willing to lose the wine-day commission on those bookings. I keep the villa-side trust. The villa-side trust is what brings them back the following year."
The four estates we name are the kind of test a buyer can run on any broker, in any wine region. If the broker can explain why a named estate is not on the day's itinerary, the explanation is usually structural and worth respecting. If the broker insists the estate is unavailable when public booking calendars or direct-enquiry forms show otherwise, the buyer has learned something useful about the broker.
"The standard bundled Brunello day is sold across Tuscany at €4,800 to €6,200 for a group of eight. The day includes two mid-tier estates that pay the broker the 12 percent, lunch at one of them, and a driver. The day does not include Biondi-Santi. The day does not include Soldera. The day does not include the cellars that built the Brunello reputation."
"A buyer who paid €5,400 for that day did not see what they came to see. They tasted Brunello. They visited Montalcino. They did not visit the houses they had read about. They went home thinking they had done the Brunello day. They had done a commercial substitute."
"I stopped selling the bundled Brunello day in 2022. The decision cost me approximately €38,000 in commission in the first year. The decision rebuilt the wine-day trust with my repeat clients. The bookings the following year came back. The clients told their friends the agency had been straight with them. That kind of recommendation does not come from the bundled day."
The bundled day pattern shows up beyond Tuscany. Our work on the villa broker kickback economy traces the same model in Mykonos restaurant reservations, St Barts boat charters, and Bali wellness programmes. The mechanism is identical: a paid third party invoiced as a service.
"Three things.
"Ask the broker for the direct rate of every estate on the proposed day, in writing, before signing the day. The broker who will not provide the direct rate is the broker marking up. The broker who will provide it has nothing to hide.
"For Brunello, book Biondi-Santi or Soldera direct, three to four months out. Both have a published direct-enquiry process. Build the rest of the day around the timing of those two visits. The other estates can be added in. The two anchors cannot be substituted.
"Drop the lunch at the estate. The estate lunch is the most marked-up line on the day. A €120-a-head estate lunch at a mid-tier producer is, on the kitchens we have eaten at, between €40 and €70 of food. The same €120 spent at a properly chosen Tuscany restaurant for lunch buys a meal worth eating. Take the wine days at the estates. Take the lunches at the restaurants. Do not let the estate sell you the lunch."
The three lines reduce a €5,400 group day to about €2,200 to €2,800 for the same six people on the same calendar, with two of the four legacy producers in the mix. The buyer keeps the wine. The broker loses the bundled commission. The right broker is happy to lose it.
Why is the bundled day so expensive? Three layers: broker commission of 8 to 15 percent, concierge fee of €40 to €80 a head, estate premium of €120 to €380 a head.
Which producers refuse the commission? Tenuta San Guido (Sassicaia), Biondi-Santi, Soldera Case Basse, and Salvioni. Each takes direct enquiries only.
What is a fair private wine-day rate in 2026? For a group of six with two estates, lunch in town, and a driver: €1,800 to €2,400. Above €3,000 the buyer is paying for the margin chain.
Which broker should a buyer book through? The one who will provide the direct estate rates in writing. The one who will not is marking up.
Most overrated bundled day? The standard Brunello of Montalcino package. It skips the two estates a Brunello visitor came to see.
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Last updated 2026-02. We have not adjusted our editorial for the commission rate. See how-we-make-money for the full disclosure.