The tasting took place on April 13, 2024 at Coti-Chiavari. After the 2015 vintage, whose final was won by Yves Canarelli’s cuvée Amphore, the club continues its exploration of the island’s great red wines with the 2016 vintage.
Great Corsican wines are hard to source in older vintages, but this time we had a little more time to track down the top wines, relying as usual on the consolidated scores provided by the Wine-Searcher website. We were even able to organize two semi-finals with the best challengers from northern Corsica (“Cismonte”) and southern Corsica (“Pumonte”). Unfortunately, we were unable to restock the first of each of these semi-finals, in this case Nos Petits Grains du Clos Marfisi (Patrimonio) and Tarra di Sognu, Yves Canarelli’s brand-new Bonifacio regional appellation wine. We have replaced them with Clos Venturi’s Chiesa Nera, second in the Cismonte, and Antica d’U Stiliccionu and Domaine Peraldi’s Cuvée Cardinal, second and fourth respectively in the Pumonte.
Visit to Castellu di Baricci (Sartène appellation) in the verdant Ortolo valley
The A final is a match between Corsica’s two Grands Crus appellations, Ajaccio and Patrimonio, refereed by Clos Venturi’s La Chiesa Nera (Ponte Leccia) and Yves Canarelli’s Cuvée Amphora (Figari).
Here is the list of wines presented:
- Antica, U Stiliccionu, Ajaccio
- Amphora, Clos Canarelli, Figari
- Carco, A-M. Arena, Patrimonio
- Chiesa Nera, Clos Venturi, Vin de Corse
- Cuvée Cardinal, Comte Peraldi, Ajaccio
- Granit, Vaccelli, Ajaccio
- Grotte di Sole, J-B. Arena, Patrimonio
- Kalliste, U Stiliccionu, Ajaccio
- Memoria, A-M. Arena, Patrimonio
- Ministre Impérial, Abbatucci, Ajaccio
- Monte Bianco, Abbatucci, Ajaccio
- Morta Maio, A. Arena, Patrimonio
- San Giovanni, A-M. Arena, Vin de France
This blind tasting was won by two wines from Taravo, the southern valley of the Ajaccio appellation, namely Antica from Sébastien Poly (the most Burgundian of Corsican winemakers) and Granit from Gérard Courrèges. It’s worth noting that Antica is not aged in barrels. The stainless-steel vat enables a different level of evolution and balance to be achieved, without however – and this is the most astonishing – losing in complexity nor intensity.
Vaccelli’s Granit and Peraldi’s Cuvée Cardinal complete the podium, more in line with the grand crus de garde of the Ajaccio appellation. Yves Canarelli’s cuvée Amphora failed to make the podium this time, although it was ahead of Jean-Charles Abbatucci’s Monte Bianco and Ministre Impérial.
Overall, and as in 2015, the wines of Ajaccio and Figari, which feature Sciaccarellu, the emblematic grape variety of these two appellations, are ahead of all other wines. The great wines of Patrimonio, using mainly Niellucciu grapes, will certainly benefit from cellaring for a few more years.
A special mention must go to Tarra di Sognu, the only wine that managed to beat (admittedly by a small margin) Antica in the Pumonte semi-final. This new wine in the Bonifaccio “micro-appellation” brings to the top the Carcaghjolu Neru grape variety, characterized by its dark color and great sapidity.
Asphodeles on top of the Punta San Petru, with a view on the peak Manteluccio on the left.