Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Corsica night

Since wine from Corsica is hard to find even in its home country France, you can imagine how excited we were when a friend brought us two bottles back from her trip there. Corsica, a large island floating just north of Sardegna, west of Italy and south of France, its still a rather unknown land due to its hard to get location. Most grapes grown there are indigenous making the wine incredibly unique and due to its island location wonderfully fresh and mineral. Carginan, Grenache, Cinsault and Alicante, are the French grapes brought there from the mainland, while the favored Nielluccio (a clone of Sangiovese) and Sciaccarello (which is found only on the island) have an unknown origin. The first wine we opened was a 2008 Crème de Tete by Clos de Bernardi. Since there is no website and nothing written on the bottle, my only guess is that this red is a mix of a few grapes if not all found on the island. The second bottle, a 2007 Cuvèe Prestige du Menhir by Louis Montemagni, has a website that doesnt work, so once again we are without too much information. One thing we do know about both wines, is that they are from the Patrimonio appellation, meaning that the main grape grown in the area is Nielluccio and that the terrain is calcareous.
The Clos de Bernardi is a leggy, ruby colored wine with fragrances of liquorish, cloves and various other spices. Dark cherry, baked apples and chocolate followed and continues on to the palate. Like we expected, it was fresh and mineral but also quite tannic with a medium intensity of warmth given off by the alcohol content. The 'terrior' really shows through in this wine and I was reminded of being on a beach or smelling and tasting a forest on the shores after a rain shower. A wine that can capture such images is really original and that's exactly what makes Creme de Tete so special. Already complete at 2008 Im not sure this wine will age that well, but it does make for a great appertif or to be paired with a lighter dinner of pasta.
The Cuvèe Prestige du Menhir was similar to that of Clos de Bernardi but not as well-rounded even though its an earlier vintage. The same spices and fruits carried out the aromas of the wine and the minerality and tannicity of the previous wine were also present in this one. The alcohol content was the same in both bottles but was more present in the Cuvèe. Both represent their birthplace and both have originality that is not often found. If you ever come across a Corsican wine- try it.

Difficilmente si ha la possibilità di bere vino dalla Corsica, così potete immaginare quanto eccitati eravamo quando una amica ci ha portato 2 bottiglie da un viaggio sull'isola francese.
Molti vini sono prodotti da uve autoctone che hanno una incredibile freschezza e mineralità dovuti appunto dalla posizione geografica e dal territorio montuoso collinare e marittmo dell'isola.
Carginan, Grenache, Cinsault e Alicante sono le uve originarie dalla Francia quindi portate inizialmente dalla terra ferma; mentre il nostro favorito il Nielluccio (un clone del Sangiovese) e Sciaccarello ( che si trova solamente nell'isola) hanno origini quasi sconosciute. Il primo vino che abbiamo bevuto era un 2008 Crème de Tete di Clos de Bernardi. Dal momento che non c'è nessun sito web e niente di scritto sulla bottiglia immagino che sia un blend di due o più uve.
Il secondo era a 2007 Cuvèe Prestige du Menhir di Louis Montemagni che ha un sito web ma non funziona bene così ancora una volta siamo senza informazioni disponibili.
Una cosa sappiamo di sicuro dei due vini che entrmbi provengono da una zona chiamata Promontorio e quindi che la principale uva coltivata e il Nielluccio e il terreno è calcareo.
Il Clos de Bernardi è rosso rubino con una fragranza di liquirizia, chiodi di garofano e altre spezie. More, mele cotte e cioccolato bianco. Fresco in bocca abbastanza caldo con un bel corpo morbido Buon equilibrio tendente un po' sulle durezze, ancora giovane direi.
Il terroir si fa sentire e se chiudo gli occhi vedo terre nebbie e fatiche.

L'altro vino assomiglia molto al primo ma peccava più in uno sbilanciamento nelle morbidezze specialmente nell'impatto alcolico.
Entrambi rappresentano in modo significativo la Corsica. Questo è quello che ogni produttore si deve prefiggere nel produrre il suo vino espreimere il territorio aggiungendo la sua personalità unica come si fa con il sale e gli aromi su una pietanza.

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