Wine Tours from Palermo

Q: Are there wineries near Palermo?

Not inside the city, but within an hour by car. The Alcamo natural-wine vineyard tour ($41, 4.9 / 5 from 54 reviews) and the Partinico vineyard brunch ($56, 4.9 / 5 from 43 reviews) are the closest cellar-door tastings, both west of the city. Inside Palermo the wine bars do the job instead, pouring wines from across the island: Bottega Monteleone alone has 924 reviews.

Q: What is the best wine tasting in Palermo?

By volume of reviews, the Bottega Monteleone tasting: $51 for five wines (sparkling, white, rosé, red, dessert) with Sicilian tapas, 4.8 / 5 from 924 reviews. The 26mq Urban Winery tasting near Ballarò ($50, 4.8 / 5 from 206 reviews) is the closest rival. For a premium version, the cheese-and-wine tasting in a 16th-century home by the cathedral ($139) pours six wines with six cheeses.

Q: Can I do a Marsala wine tour from Palermo?

Yes. The Erice and Marsala day trip ($226, 4.9 / 5 from 25 reviews) leaves Piazza Verdi at 8:15 with a driver and covers Erice, an olive-oil farm lunch, the Salt Way Road and a Marsala winery tasting. Marsala is about 124 km away, so the day includes roughly three hours of driving. Details on the Marsala wine tours page.

Q: Can I visit Etna wineries on a day trip from Palermo?

Not comfortably. Etna is on the opposite side of the island, and none of the tours compared here runs an Etna wine day from Palermo. The Palermo wine bars pour Etna DOC wines instead: Enoteca Brillo's Etna Experience ($58) is built around Nerello Mascalese. If the volcano itself is the goal, spend a night in Catania or Taormina.

Q: How much does a wine tasting in Palermo cost?

Between $50 and $139 for the in-city tastings. $50 to $58 buys four or five wines with appetisers at Bottega Monteleone, 26mq or Enoteca Brillo. $99 buys the Eating Palermo evening food and wine walk. $139 buys the six-wine, six-cheese tasting with Riedel glassware. The Marsala day trip is $226 because it includes a driver and lunch.

Q: Do the Palermo wine tastings include food?

Yes, and at Bottega Monteleone the snacks add up to a light meal. 26mq serves Sicilian appetisers, Enoteca Brillo a board of four cured meats and four cheeses with bread, and the cheese-and-wine home pairs each of six wines with a specific Sicilian cheese. Treat them as an aperitivo-plus, not dinner, unless you book the evening food tour.

Q: Are the tastings in English?

Yes. Bottega Monteleone, 26mq, Enoteca Brillo and the cheese-and-wine tasting all list English alongside Italian; the cheese tasting also runs in Spanish and French. The Erice and Marsala day trip is driver-escorted rather than guided, so there is no commentary inside the monuments.

Q: How long is a wine tasting in Palermo?

Around two hours. The cheese-and-wine tasting is sold as a 2-hour tour and the gastronomy tasting in Piazza Bologni states approximately two hours; the wine-bar tastings run similar lengths. That leaves the rest of the day free, which is the main argument for tasting in town rather than driving west.

Q: Which is the better base for wine tours, Palermo or Catania?

Catania for Etna, Palermo for everything else. Catania is under an hour from the Etna wineries and has the widest choice of wine tours on the island. Palermo has better in-city tastings and is the base for Marsala and the western vineyards. If wine is the priority of the trip, split the stay. Compare on the best wine tours in Sicily page.

Q: Do I need to book Palermo wine tastings in advance?

Yes. The tastings are hosted sessions with limited seats, and the most-reviewed ones fill in the evening slots. Every option here confirms instantly and can be cancelled free up to 24 hours before, so book the date you want and check availability now rather than on the day.

Featured Tour

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Featured Tour

Palermo: Wine Tasting with Snacks at Bottega Monteleone

The most-reviewed wine experience in Sicily: five regional wines with Sicilian tapas in a wine bar in the centre, $51, and no transport needed.

From $51 per person
4.8 / 5 from 924 reviews
2 hours
Free cancellation

Highlights

Five Sicilian wines from small producers, poured in order from sparkling to dessert wine
A matching Sicilian tapa with every glass; the five plates make a light meal
Hosted tasting in English or Italian in a wine bar in central Palermo
The most reviewed wine experience on this site, with well over nine hundred verified reviews
No transport and no walking: a seated two hours, a short stroll from the old town

What's Included

Your host for the tasting
Tasting of 5 Sicilian wines
A Sicilian tapa paired with each wine
Water

Check Availability & Book Read the Full Breakdown

How Wine Tasting from Palermo Works

Two formats, one decision: stay in the city or spend the day out west.

Decide: two hours or a whole day
In-city tastings take about two hours in a wine bar or a private home and start at $50. Day trips west run eight to ten hours with a driver and cost around $226.
In town: walk to the meeting point
Bottega Monteleone, 26mq Urban Winery near Ballarò, Enoteca Brillo on Via Cavour and the cheese-and-wine home by the cathedral are all inside the historic centre.
Out west: pick-up at 8:15
The Erice and Marsala day leaves Piazza Verdi at 8:15 with a driver, not a licensed guide. Erice first, an olive-oil farm lunch, then the Salt Way Road and a Marsala winery.
Taste four to six wines
Sparkling, white, rosé, red and a sweet wine is the usual arc in the city bars. Out west it is Grillo, Catarratto and a Marsala at the cellar door.

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Photo Gallery

Palermo's Wine Bars and the Road West

Tasting tables in the old town, the salt road and the vineyards of western Sicily.

Mount Etna with a plume of smoke rising from the summit, seen above the rooftops of Catania — Etna above Catania. The volcano is the vineyard on Sicily's east side, and the closest wine region to the city.

A night-time eruption of Mount Etna with a fountain of red lava against a black sky — Etna at night. Several tours pair a crater walk with a winery tasting on the way down.

A long vaulted cellar corridor lined on both sides with stacked oak barrels, lit warmly — The Florio cellars in Marsala, where fortified wine has been aged since 1833.

Flat salt pans and a stone windmill under a wide sky on the coast between Trapani and Marsala — The salt pans between Trapani and Marsala. Day trips from Palermo bundle them with a winery.

A sunlit whitewashed courtyard with palms inside a traditional Marsala wine estate — A historic Marsala baglio, the walled farm-and-cellar complex the west coast's wineries grew out of.

Two glasses of wine and a bottle beside a blue ceramic pine cone on a table in the Val di Noto — Nero d'Avola country. Tastings around Noto and Marzamemi come with a Sicilian spread.

A visitor standing between rows of vines at a winery near Ragusa in bright sunshine — Vines near Ragusa, in the Cerasuolo di Vittoria area, Sicily's only DOCG.

Rows of aged wine bottles resting in wooden racks inside a dim cellar — The cellar walk comes before the wine on almost every tour compared here.

A dense cluster of dark blue-black grapes hanging among autumn-coloured vine leaves — Ripe red grapes. Sicily's harvest runs from late summer into October.

A hand cutting a bunch of dark grapes into a wicker basket in a vineyard — Harvest is the busiest and best time to visit an estate.

A long dining table laid with glasses on wine barrels between rows of vines — A vineyard lunch. On food-and-wine tours the meal is the point, not the extra.

A hand raising a glass of white wine beneath a pergola heavy with ripe grapes — The white goes first. Carricante on Etna, Grillo in the west.

Guests at an outdoor table in a Palermo street with glasses of wine and small plates — A tasting room in Palermo: five wines and Sicilian snacks, no car needed.

A man and a woman tasting red wine at a table with a bottle and a laptop, vines behind — A private tasting. Small estates often host you at the family table.

A wooden wine barrel standing at the end of a grassy alley between trained vine rows — Trained rows on a modern estate. Older Sicilian vineyards still keep bush-trained alberello vines.

Young vines on posts under a bright blue sky with white clouds — Early summer in the vineyard, the quietest and greenest time to visit.

Taste in Town, or Spend the Day Out West?

The most-reviewed Palermo tasting against its closest rival and the full Marsala day trip.

Feature	OUR PICK Bottega Monteleone Tasting	26mq Urban Winery Tasting	Erice & Marsala Day Trip
Starting Price	From $51/per person	From $50/person	From $226/person
Rating	4.8 / 5 (924 reviews)	4.8 / 5 (206 reviews)	4.9 / 5 (25 reviews)
Time needed	About 2 hours	About 2 hours	Full day, 8:15 pick-up
Wines tasted	5 — sparkling, white, rosé, red, dessert	4 from small cellars	Marsala winery tasting plus olive oil
Food	Sicilian tapas, a light meal	Sicilian appetisers	Light lunch at an olive-oil farm
Transport	Walk to the wine bar	Walk to Ballarò	Driver included
Best for	The safest first tasting in Palermo	A balcony over a baroque church	Erice, salt pans and a cellar in one day
	Check Availability	View Tour	View Tour

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ETNA · MOST REVIEWED

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MARSALA · FLORIO

Marsala: Florio Winery Tour with Food-Paired Wine Tastings

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NOTO · NERO D'AVOLA

Marzamemi: Val di Noto Wine Tour, Wine Tasting & Aperitif

Guided winery tour near Marzamemi with four Val di Noto wines and a full Sicilian pairing plate. From $49, rated 4.8 from 10 reviews.

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WINERY LUNCH

Catania: Etna Urban Winery Sicilian Lunch with Wine Tasting

Three-course Sicilian lunch with four Etna wines at a 1790 walled winery inside Catania, urban vineyards after. From $73. Rated 4.9 by 84 guests.

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PRIVATE

Private and Guided 3 Etna Wineries with Food & Wine

Private Etna wine day from Taormina or Catania: three estates, ten wines, food included, hotel or port pick-up. From $325 per person. Rated 4.9 by 103 guests.

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FOOD & WINE · PALERMO

Palermo: Wine Tasting with Snacks at Bottega Monteleone

Seated tasting of 5 Sicilian wines with matching tapas in a central Palermo wine bar. From $51, rated 4.8 from 924 reviews. 2 hours, free cancellation.

4.8 (924)

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Where to Taste

Explore Sicily Wine Tours by Area

Sicily has four distinct wine regions and four practical bases. Start with the region you want to taste, or the city you are sleeping in — the tours sort themselves from there.

Volcanic reds & whites · east

Mount Etna

Cellar visits, Etna DOC tastings and vineyard lunches on the slopes of an active volcano — the widest choice of wine tours on the island.

Compare Etna wine tours →

Fortified wine & the west coast

Marsala

Historic Marsala cellars, Grillo and the salt-pan coast — winery tours and tastings in western Sicily, most within reach of Palermo and Trapani.

Compare Marsala wine tours →

Nero d'Avola country · south-east

Noto & Val di Noto

Nero d'Avola at the source: small estates around Noto, Avola and Marzamemi, usually paired with a baroque town and a long lunch.

Compare Noto wine tours →

Etna's north slope in an hour

Taormina Departures

Half-day tastings, two-winery days and full volcano-and-wine tours leaving Taormina, Giardini Naxos and Letojanni each morning.

Tours from Taormina →

Closest city to the volcano

Catania Departures

Urban wineries in the city, Etna's south slope, sunset tastings and full-day crater-and-wine tours — the shortest transfers of any base.

Tours from Catania →

Palermo Base

Choosing a Wine Tour from Palermo

Why the city bars beat a day trip for most visitors, and when the day trip wins.

Palermo is not a wine region, and that turns out to be its advantage. The city’s wine bars pour from every part of Sicily in one sitting: an Etna red, a Grillo from the west, a Nero d’Avola from the south-east, a Zibibbo to finish. No vineyard within an hour can do that.

So the first decision for a Palermo-based visitor is not which winery. It is whether to taste in town for two hours or give a whole day to the road west.

The in-town tastings

The wine tasting at Bottega Monteleone is the most-reviewed wine experience on this site: 4.8 / 5 from 924 reviews, $51 for five wines from small Sicilian producers (sparkling, white, rosé, red and a dessert wine) with tapas that add up to a light meal. It is a wine bar in the centre, so you walk there. Our breakdown →

The alternatives are close in price and format:

The tasting at 26mq Urban Winery ($50, 4.8 / 5 from 206 reviews): four wines from small non-commercial cellars with Sicilian appetisers, on a balcony facing an 18th-century church near the Ballarò market.
Enoteca Brillo’s Etna Experience ($58, 4.8 / 5 from 20 reviews) and its Sicily Experience ($58, 4.9 / 5 from 12 reviews): four glasses with a sommelier and a board of cured meats and cheeses. Pick Etna if you want Nerello Mascalese, Sicily if you want the native grapes across the island.
The Sicilian cheese and wine tasting ($139, 4.9 / 5 from 56 reviews): six wines and six cheeses in a 16th-century private home by the cathedral, with Riedel glasses and ricotta sweets. The premium option, and the one for people who came for the cheese as much as the wine.

For an evening that is more food than wine, the Eating Palermo evening tour ($99, 4.8 / 5 from 19 reviews) walks the old town with pizza in a 15th-century palace, arancine in La Kalsa, wine with small plates and a cannolo to finish.

The day trips west

Marsala is about 124 km from Palermo, an hour and a half each way. That is why the one full-day wine trip from the city bundles three things into the drive. The Erice and Marsala day is $226 with a driver, a morning in Erice, a light lunch at an olive oil farm, the Salt Way Road and a Marsala winery tasting, 4.9 / 5 from 25 reviews. Note that the driver is an escort rather than a licensed guide, so monuments are self-guided. Our breakdown →

If you have a car, the vineyards nearer Palermo are cheaper and closer: the natural-wine vineyard tour in Alcamo ($41, 4.9 / 5 from 54 reviews) pours six wines with the producers after a walk past the vines and the apiary; the Partinico vineyard brunch ($56, 4.9 / 5 from 43 reviews) adds a walk through olive and citrus groves and brunch in a Sicilian baglio; and the Alcamo wine and amaro tasting ($35) is the small-cellar option with a house-made amaro at the end. Cefalù, an hour east, has an urban cellar tasting ($35, 4.9 / 5 from 63 reviews) and a half-day coach tour to the Castelbuono winery ($66).

Which one, honestly

Most people staying in Palermo should book a city tasting and spend the day on the city. Bottega Monteleone if you want the safest bet, the cheese-and-wine home if you want the premium version. Book the Marsala day only if Erice and the salt pans are on your list anyway; as a wine day alone it spends three hours in a van. Etna is too far for a day from Palermo, so if the volcano is the reason you came, base yourself in Catania or Taormina for a night.

For the cellar-by-cellar comparison out west, see Marsala winery tours, or check availability for the featured tasting.

Guest Reviews

What Palermo Wine Tour Guests Say

4.8/5 from 924 verified guests

"Great food, wine and people. Always nice to meet some holiday friends. The local wines were perfect!"

"Lovely evening, very knowledgeable! We loved it ☺️☺️"

"I was able to taste a variety of Sicilian wines, and the accompanying food was delicious as well! It was nice to get a detailed explanation for each wine, and I also enjoyed talking with the other participants."

"Lovely wine and snacks in a friendly environment. Our host was knowledgeable and explained about the wines in perfect English. This is the third time we have enjoyed this event and will do so again. An excellent activity."

"Great experience, the wine bar is tucked away on a little side street, and Yuri was super friendly and knowledgeable about all the wines! They were very accommodating of my gluten allergy and provided alternative snacks for me to pair with each wine. Great experience and would definitely recommend to anyone visiting Palermo wanting to try delicious Sicilian wines!"

"Very knowledgable host in a nice informal setting. Food was plentiful with the wine. No meal required afterwards"

"The experience and the wine tasting were exactly as described. 5 wonderful wines in normal quantities, each with its own accompaniment. Come on an empty stomach!The staff was friendly and answered all our questions about the wine. We recommend it!"

"Great activity with someone who is very knowledgeable about wine! The accompaniments for each wine are great and go well with the wine. The bar was really great, and the staff was incredibly friendly. I recommend it for discovering Sicily through its wines!"

Read all 924 verified reviews

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