2018 La Vigna di San Martino Ad Argiano Chianti Classico

Some of the best wines come from people who learned at the best addresses and then set out to make something entirely their own. Giampaolo Chiettini spent years as a winemaker at Isole e Olena, one of the most revered estates in all of Chianti Classico, working alongside the legendary Paolo De Marchi and falling in love with Sangiovese. Then he found his own tiny vineyard, a single hectare in the hills of San Casciano, and started making the wine he wanted to drink.

This is it: an uncompromising, pure Sangiovese, organically farmed and fermented with native yeasts, made with a deliberately light hand so the grape and the place speak for themselves. One writer called it a "slightly surly country gentleman," and that's exactly right, a traditional, structured Chianti Classico Riserva that's a little reserved at first, then opens into something deep and complex: red cherry, dried herbs, tobacco, and earth, with firm tannins and bright acidity.

There is almost none of it made, and it reaches only a handful of shops worldwide. For lovers of real, old-school Sangiovese, this is the kind of bottle you buy when you can find it, because you rarely can.