diff --git a/xarray/core/variable.py b/xarray/core/variable.py
index 1f18f61441c..e89cf95411c 100644
--- a/xarray/core/variable.py
+++ b/xarray/core/variable.py
@@ -123,13 +123,18 @@ def as_variable(
     if isinstance(obj, Variable):
         obj = obj.copy(deep=False)
     elif isinstance(obj, tuple):
-        if isinstance(obj[1], DataArray):
+        try:
+            dims_, data_, *attrs = obj
+        except ValueError:
+            raise ValueError(f"Tuple {obj} is not in the form (dims, data[, attrs])")
+
+        if isinstance(data_, DataArray):
             raise TypeError(
                 f"Variable {name!r}: Using a DataArray object to construct a variable is"
                 " ambiguous, please extract the data using the .data property."
             )
         try:
-            obj = Variable(*obj)
+            obj = Variable(dims_, data_, *attrs)
         except (TypeError, ValueError) as error:
             raise error.__class__(
                 f"Variable {name!r}: Could not convert tuple of form "