We were delighted to read Liz Sague's articles on Corsican wines in the Hampstead & Highgate Express, particularly as she names The Wine Society as 'the most accessibly source' of the wines on this shore.
Vineyard at Domaine d’Alzipratu, in the Corse-Calvi appellation and below Pierre Acquaviva
Try Corsican wines that age graciously
There are places where grapes grow that are remote, idyllic: vineyards where simply to see them
makes you want to drink the
wine they produce. Domaine
d’Alzipratu is one of them.
The estate is barely a
10-minute drive from the
bustling beaches around Calvi
on Corsica’s northern coast –
you can see them beyond the
vines. But here rather than
there is why the “isle de beauté”
title remains so truly deserved.
Pierre Acquaviva
Domaine d’Alzipratu is very recent in Corsica’s millennialong wine history.
It was
established in 1968 and since
1991 has been run by Pierre
Acquaviva, who has doubled its
size from the 20 hectares tended
by his father in partnership
with its founder.
In many ways, this place
typifies what modern Corsican
wine is all about. The emphasis
is on vine varieties grown on
the island since the Greeks
and Romans poured grape
juice into terracotta amphoras
to bubble away and become
wine (Acquaviva, inveterate
experimenter, has just made
a wine that way). And quality
wine, whatever the material
of the container in which it is
fermented, is the aim – an aim
shared by the 100 or so other
individual growers and four cooperatives.
Steep hillside vineyards on the island of Corsica
The scale of wine production
on Corsica is small, and 40
per cent of the total 50 million
bottles never leave the island
– rosé, especially, is happily
consumed by the five million
tourists. The rest is shared
roughly between France and
the export market – North
Americans, in both the US
and Canada, are the thirstiest.
Enough reaches the UK for
any wine lover with a taste for
the usual and often special to
access a decent choice of bottles
(suggestions will be in next
week’s column).
It’s intriguing that most of
the quality wines of Corsica,
whatever colour, have the
potential to age graciously,
even though they can change
character radically from
youthful, easy, fruity freshness
to robust individuality. That
potential can be true even of
rosés – I remember on my first
visit to the island meeting
one very serious grower who
refused to release his for a
minimum or two years after
harvest. They merited the wait.
The increasing impatience
of the present-day wine market
acts to the disadvantage of
Corsican reds particularly, says
Eric Poli, president of the CIVC,
the professional committee
charged to cherish and promote
all the island’s wines.
Both he and Pierre
Acquaviva, who heads the
committee responsible for
Corsica’s appellation protegée
(AP) wines, are arguing for
new regulations requiring a
minimum 24 months’ ageing
for all AP reds. While there
is general support among the
vignerons, the difficulty, says
Poli somewhat ruefully, “is to
agree exactly the way of doing
that”.
Idyllic vineyards in Corsica with a mountainous backdrop
Corsican Winemaker, Eric Poli
Changes tend to happen
slowly in Corsica, but Poli
seems hopeful this one will
materialise, as has the huge
improvement in quality over
recent years.
Small and beautiful is the
policy now, a stark contrast to
the decades from the 1960s when
droves of French escapees from
newly-independent Algeria –
many Corsicans among them
– planted international grape
varieties with abandon and
cropped them at levels which
produced wine massively
inferior to today’s delights.
Wines that are as lovely as the view
Corsica, certainly, has wines to match the beauty of the landscape. So now for the practicalities of
how to buy these unique and
greatly enjoyable bottles.
Easily the most accessible
source here is The Wine
Society, with nine wines
currently listed plus at least
four more coming soon.
There are examples from
Pierre Acquaviva’s Domaine
d’Alzipratu and Eric Poli’s Clos
Alivu among them, but let’s
start with the man who besides
being one of Corsica’s most
idiosyncratic characters makes
some of its most-desired wine.
The vineyards of Antoine
Arena – now divided between
father and his two sons, better
to avoid family disagreements,
as Antoine’s wife Marie
smilingly told me – lie in
the Patrimonio region, the
first in Corsica to be granted
appellation controlée status
(appellation protegée is the title
now).
Arena family vineyard in Patrimonio
Here the soils are limestonebased rather than the granite/
schist predominance over
most of the island. And what
limestone: outside the Arena
cellar lies a slab full of the
largest fossil seashells I’ve ever
seen in wine territory.
Antoine Arena makes
natural wines, an adjective
with mixed interpretations.
Some see it as a lazy way out;
serious practitioners believe
it keeps the elemental
character of their wines: they
avoid chemicals anywhere
along the production process,
encourage fermentation by
naturally-present yeasts,
bottle without filtering
and use the minimum of
protective but flavournumbing sulphites.
Simply, Arena argues, let the
grapes speak: “If you have good
grapes and the cellar is clean,
the wine makes itself.”
'If you have good
grapes and the cellar is clean,
the wine makes itself.'
In his wines, those grapes
are native to Corsica, notably
niellucciu for the reds.
Chianti’s sangiovese shares
the same genetic origin, but
the island versions are quite
different. Embedded in my
tasting memory is Morta Maio
2011 (£22). Dark, concentrated,
yet fresh, it has niellucciu’s
old-leathery scent alongside
rich fruit, huge character
on the palate and a longmemorable finish where ripe
but still almost sour cherries
predominate.
Red grapes on the vine in Corsica
Biancu Gentile 2012 (£22),
with citrus edge and great
length, is from a vine probably
introduced by the Greeks
or Romans and now grown
nowhere else. Antoine Arena
is largely responsible for its
re-emergence – it’s one of
several long-ignored varieties
which the Corsican viticultural
research organisation believes
have excellent modern
potential.
Last of the
present trio is
a classy, grapescented Muscat
de Cap Corse
2012
(£16),
sweet but not at all syrupy.
From Domaine d’Alzipratu,
current listings are 2012 white
and 2013 red Fiumeseccu
(£10.95/£12.95), whose name
evokes the waterless river
alongside the estate. The white
(vermentino) is zesty and long-lasting; the red (niellucciu-led
four-grape blend) is a perfect
summer lunchtime wine, best
served cool. Pumente white
and red, more serious and
ageworthy, will join them
shortly.
Eric Poli makes a tempting selection of wines from several locations in the north of Corsica, and The Society's wise choices come from his estate up in Patrimonio's wild hills.
Clos Alivu Blanc 2013
(£12.95), vermentino, is
delicious: flowers, citrus, and
a refreshing near-saltiness; the
very aromatic Clos Alivu Rouge
2013 (£12.95), niellucciu, is
stylish, serious, yet appealingly
approachable.
Also available: happy,
excellent-value Terra Nostra
Nielluccio 2013 (£7.95) and
summer-in-a-glass The
Society’s Corsican
Rosé 2014 (£8.75).
Liz Sagues 2011 Louis Roederer Regional Wine Writer of the Year
Hampstead & Highgate Express 10th July 2015