Cantina Senesi Aretini

The story

The Name Carries Both Provinces

In 1971, a group of growers in Sinalunga signed the papers to form an agricultural cooperative. They were solving a practical problem: individual farmers in the Siena-Arezzo borderland had vineyards they could not easily bottle or sell under their own names, so they pooled resources and agreed to bring their grapes to a shared cellar. The arrangement held, and then grew. By the time membership stabilised in recent decades, 235 growers were contributing fruit from a collective 350 hectares. The cooperative's name carries both provinces in it: Senesi for Siena, Aretini for Arezzo. That dual address, written into the name at founding and unchanged since, remains accurate across every bottle they produce.

From the atlas

Cantina Viticoltori Senesi Aretini

At A Glance

The Producer

Sinalunga sits on the southern lip of Siena province, where the landscape tips toward Arezzo and the cooperative model is not a romantic survival but a working agricultural society. Cantina Viticoltori Senesi Aretini was founded there in 1971, and today it draws together 235 growers farming a collective 350 hectares across the Siena-Arezzo borderland.

The scale matters because it shapes the wine. This is not a single domaine with one sensibility expressed across a handful of parcels. It is a cooperative whose output depends on how 235 individuals farm their land, and where the winemaker's job is to find consistent quality across that breadth. Mery Ferrara holds that job, and her answer to the cooperative challenge has been to work the cellar lightly: minimal intervention, allowing the character of Sangiovese grown across this wide address to come forward rather than being smoothed into uniformity by heavy oak treatment.

Six growers within the cooperative hold certified organic status. That is a small fraction of 235, but it represents a real commitment at individual farm level in a region where the economics of certification weigh heavily on smaller growers.

Place

Sinalunga is a hill town in the Val di Chiana, the broad flat-bottomed valley running south toward Montepulciano and Cortona. The commune straddles the administrative boundary between Siena and Arezzo provinces, which is why the cooperative carries both names. The vineyards sit across this borderland, drawing on soils and exposures from two provinces rather than one tightly defined hill.

The appellation is Chianti DOCG, the broader designation rather than Chianti Classico, which is confined to the zone between Florence and Siena. Chianti DOCG covers a wider arc of central Tuscany, and wines from this zone carry the Chianti label without the Classico qualifier. The grape is Sangiovese.

Soil And Site

The packet does not confirm specific soil types or named vineyard parcels across the cooperative's 350 hectares. The borderland territory between Siena and Arezzo carries a mix of clay-rich and galestro-influenced soils typical of inland Tuscany, but no parcel-level data is verified for this cooperative. The breadth of grower land across two provinces means the vineyards are distributed across varied exposures and altitudes rather than concentrated on a single slope or classified site.

Story

The cooperative was formed in 1971, when local growers around Sinalunga pooled their vineyards into a shared agricultural society. In the years that followed, membership grew and the vineyard area expanded until it reached its current scale of 235 growers and approximately 350 hectares. That growth represents decades of individual families choosing to remain inside a collective arrangement rather than pursue independent bottling, a decision shaped by economics as much as tradition.

Mery Ferrara's arrival as winemaker brought a clearer house direction. Where many cooperatives in Tuscany leaned toward extractive, oak-dominated Sangiovese through the 1990s and 2000s, Ferrara moved the cellar toward lighter handling and mineral-forward wine. The Chianti Castelsina, the cooperative's entry-level bottle, reflects that direction: dry, relatively low alcohol at 12.5%, and spiced rather than sweet in its oak expression. The Chianti Riserva carries more fixed acidity and is built for short-to-medium ageing, giving the range a genuine two-tier architecture.

Vineyards And Cellar

With 350 hectares spread across 235 growers, the cooperative does not farm as a single unit. Each grower manages their own parcels, and the cellar works with fruit delivered from across the territory. Six growers hold certified organic status; the remainder farm under conventional or sustainable practices, but no collective certification applies to the whole cooperative.

In the cellar, minimal intervention translates into a light touch with oak and an emphasis on preserving the fresh, mineral character of Sangiovese from this territory. Across the core range, the wines sit closer to red fruit and dried herb than to the dense, woody profile that defined much Chianti in an earlier era. The Chianti Riserva has fixed acidity, but the house style pulls toward acidity and freshness rather than extraction.

Wines

Two confirmed wines anchor the range.

The Chianti Castelsina is the entry-level bottle, made from 100% Sangiovese under the Chianti DOCG. The 2024 vintage runs at 12.5% alcohol with residual sugar under 0.3 grams per 100 millilitres, placing it firmly in dry territory. The profile is spicy and oak-influenced: dark cherry, forest raspberry, and sage in the fruit register, with cocoa, cinnamon, pine nuts, and bergamot adding depth and dried-herb complexity. It is a wine built for the table at an accessible price point.

The Chianti Riserva is the elevated tier, again from Sangiovese, produced at approximately 30,000 bottles. Fixed acidity is its defining character: the wine is built to carry short-to-medium ageing, with firmer acidity than the entry-level Castelsina and a profile aimed at food over easy drinking.

Beyond these two confirmed bottles, the cooperative's full range is not detailed in verified sources and must not be assumed.

In The Glass

The Chianti Castelsina opens with dark cherry and forest raspberry, layered with sage and dried herb. The oak contribution arrives as spice rather than sweetness: cinnamon, cocoa, and a flicker of bergamot and citrus peel give the wine an aromatic complexity beyond straightforward red fruit. In the mouth, the wine is dry and medium-bodied, with the acidity of Sangiovese keeping the mid-palate fresh despite the oak-spice character. The finish is relatively clean, with cinnamon and cocoa lingering alongside the herb note.

The Chianti Riserva shifts the balance toward firmer acidity and longer persistence. It is less immediately approachable than the Castelsina and gains from time in glass or from a year or two of additional bottle age.

Both wines are built for food. The standard recommendation is lamb or beef, particularly stews and slow roasts, which match the spiced, savoury profile of Sangiovese from this territory. Serve at 16 to 18 degrees Celsius.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Chianti Castelsina. It is 100% Sangiovese from the cooperative's broad Siena-Arezzo territory, dry and lightly oaked at 12.5% alcohol, and it gives a clear picture of what Mery Ferrara is doing in the cellar: fresh acidity, dark cherry and sage, oak spice that adds complexity without dominating. It is not a grand wine, but it is an honest one, and at its price point it shows what cooperative-scale Sangiovese can do when the cellar works with the grape rather than over it.

Anecdote

In 1971, a group of growers in Sinalunga signed the papers to become an agricultural cooperative. They were not making a cultural statement; they were solving a practical problem. Individual farmers in the Siena-Arezzo borderland had vineyards they could not easily bottle or sell under their own names, so they pooled resources and agreed to bring their grapes to a shared cellar. The arrangement held, and then grew. By the time membership stabilised in recent decades, 235 growers were contributing fruit from a collective 350 hectares. The cooperative's name carries both provinces in it: Senesi for Siena, Aretini for Arezzo. That dual address, written into the name at the start and unchanged since, is still accurate across every bottle they produce.

Final Word

Cantina Viticoltori Senesi Aretini is a working cooperative, not a prestige address. Its 235 growers farm across two provinces, its winemaker keeps cellar intervention low, and its bottles sit at an everyday-to-mid-range price. The Chianti Castelsina is the place to start: Sangiovese from inland Tuscany, spiced with oak, dry, and built for a meal rather than a collection.

Sources

• https://www.viticoltorisenesiaretini.it/
• https://www.consorziovinochianti.it/aziende-old/viticoltori-senesi-aretini-soc-coope-agr/
• https://www.communalbrands.com/producer/cantina-viticoltori-senesi-aretini/
• https://guida.quattrocalici.it/vino/viticoltori-senesi-aretini/chianti-riserva-0/
• https://mysa.wine/pages/producer-profile/cantina-viticoltori-senesi-aretini
• https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/chianti-7166201/
• https://vinodino.se/sortiment/chianti-castelsina-7166201/