No matter the season, staying on an Italian winery is always an eye-opening experience. From the simple beauty of repetition as row after row of wine grapes undulates over the hillside to the earnest passion of Italian winegrowers, Italian wineries are usually stunning, serene places.

But during the fall, wineries explode with action. Grapes are picked as fast as possible to capture the peak of flavor and just as furiously pressed into juice.

While wine preferences are a deeply personal matter, there are a handful of winery inns and hotels that I love share with my clients because they cannot fail to impress.

Tuscany Wine Castles

The crème de la crème of winery stay experiences is the Banfi Castle/Castello Banfi in Montalcino, Tuscany. Its foundation dates back to Etruscan times, but you’d never know from the country chic modern style of the guest rooms.

On the otherside of Tuscany in Chianti, at the Mazzei family vineyard, Castello di Fonterutoli’s 12 rooms feel as if you’ve landed in an Italian noble friend’s cozy summer country home.

Relax at Wine Relais in Northern Italy

Two spots in northern Italy call me back again and again. In the east, Marco Felluga’s Russiz Superiore north of Venice in Friuli Venezia Giulia is new on the scene, but boasts all the understated elegance you’d expect from a Relais hotel.

The Relais Duca dei Dolla in Valdobiaddene’s hilltop location provides sweeping views of the valley and “Prosecco road.”

Sicily's Wine Stays Shouldn't Be Missed

In Sicily, the Planeta wineries are not to be missed. While the grapes for Planeta wine are grown in five separate wineries, the La Foresteria hotel at the Planeta Estate, with its gorgeous, avant-garde restaurant, is the gem of the bunch.