Terra di Seta, Chianti Classico 2012

Terra di Seta is a small, family-run estate in the Castelnuovo Berardenga subzone, the southernmost and warmest corner of Chianti Classico. Their 2012 is pure Sangiovese — no international varieties dressed up in the blend, no heavy oak to flatter the critics. What you get instead is something altogether more honest: a wine of real structural backbone, dried red fruit, iron-tinged minerality, and the kind of bitter-edged finish that makes you reach for a plate of food. The 2012 vintage was warm and generous across Tuscany, and at fourteen years old this wine has settled into a lovely, composed middle age. The tannins have softened without surrendering their grip, the fruit has dried and deepened, and there's a savouriness here that's deeply satisfying.