A deep dive into the Mediterranean

Our blind tasting theme for this dinner was wines from Mediterranean Islands with Greece in the mix. Interesting as the varietals mix is all over the place. As usual, wines are tasted blind first then enjoyed over dinner.

2007 Domaine Vico Vin de Corse - Corsica (13.5%) A lot of fruit on the nose, a little stewed but never syrupy. Nice garrigue and olives notes as well, very Mediterranean nose. Balanced and tannic, again a lot of fruit on the palate, blue fruit and cherry, a touch plumy (2007). Even if this is a rather simple wine, it's really enjoyable. Quite Corsican as well.

2008 Boutari Kretikos Red - Greece, Crete (13%) Blend of Kotsifali and Mantilaria, indigenous from Crete. Iodine and seaweed notes. Jammy fruit on the palate with plenty of strawberry on the finish. Lacks structure and dry tannins.

2008 Azienda Agricola Cos Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico - Sicily (13%) A lot of purity on the nose. Slightly plummy. Med body, tannic, high acidity that gives the wine plenty of energy while retaining its southern profile. Lovely floral notes, violets and cherry. A touch of licorice. Long finish. This wine really improved over the last few months.

2007 Domaine d'E Croce (Yves Leccia) Vin de Pays de l'Île de Beauté Cuvée YL - Corsica (13%) Has a Provencal nose with garrigue notes and green olives. A lot of fruit. Maybe a touch of heat. Full body with lowish acidity, firm tannins, it manages to stay balanced. Some licorice as well. Needs time. 80 % grenache and 20 % Niellucciu, grown on schist soils.

2006 Olympus Hellas Agiorgitiko Haggipavlu - Greece, Peloponnisos, Nemea (12.5%) Super oaky right off the bat. Lactic nose. I just can't go past the oak. Undrinkable to me.

2008 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Il Quadro delle Rose Feudo di Mezzo - Sicily (14%) Surprisingly light color. Beautiful nose with earthy and olive notes. A touch of plum as well. Hint of pencil lead. Dark fruits. Good structure and needs time for the tannins to resolve. Very nice wine and it's nice to see more finesse, vintage after vintage.

2004 Planeta Merlot Sicilia IGT - Italy, Sicily (14%) The oak shows more and more as the wine is open. There's a touch of green on the nose wrapped in plenty of ripe blue fruits. Hint of raspberry on the back palate. Full body and quite tannic. Finished on sweet oak notes. Somewhat tiring to drink.

2006 Sella & Mosca Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva - Sardinia (13.5%) Funny how this wine changed. Initially I found it pretty enjoyable with some interesting tobacco notes and cherry notes. A little funky but jammy on the palate with a short finish. But on the 2nd day, the oak was all over the place...

Overall a rather disapointing tasting. Not many wines stood out with a lot of them rather uninteresting and not balanced. Maybe a proof that this is not so easy to make good wines in such hot climates but even more kudos to the people who manage to make beautiful wines all over the Mediterranean such as Occhipinti, Arena, COS, Sigalas etc....

Corsica: it's not fair

Yup, it's not fair.

Not only they have Laetitia Casta


a beautiful island

and awesome cheeses

but they also have some ass kicking wines with authentic winemakers who pay ultimate respect to their terroir and vines.

This was a beautiful Sunday in Chicago and along home made sausages, we drunk 4 Corsican wines I brought back from home.

The program was 2 Patrimonio, 1 from Calvi and one from Porto Vecchio.

While decanting the 2 Patrimonio, we started with the 2008 Clos Culombu. A blend of 50% Niellucio, 30% Sciacarello, Grenache and Syrah. The nose is great with nice pure fruit on the nose. Pepper and garrigue notes with red fruits and a touch of blackberry comes along. There is a great energy on the palate with a nice lift on the finish. Very good structure. Served slightly above cellar temperature, it is a superb wine for summer.

The second wine was on the opposite spectrum. The 2004 Domaine de Torraccia Oriu (Porto Vecchio) is a blend of 80% Niellucciu and 20% Sciaccarellu. Fermentation is done with indigenous yeast and follows with a soaking from 15 to 21 days between 26 and 30°C with a finishing on “marcs”. The blend is aged in concrete tanks for 18 months, then at least two years in bottles. Brickish rim, masculine wine. Darker profile. Gamy nose. Slightly stewed fruit but enough acidity. Needs food. Long meaty finish. Overall a very good rustic wine which needs some air. Taste a little older than its 6 years. This Oriu cuvee is the top one for Domaine de Torraccia. The grapes are grown on the granitic soil.

Manual weed control with hoes, no chemicals, and harvesting the grapes by hand. The only treatment they use for controlling mildew in their certified-organic vineyard is bouillie bordelaise. The wines do not see any kind of wood.

We then moved on to the 2 Patrimonio, maybe the best know appelation from Corsica using mainly Niellucciu (must be at least 90%), a cousin of Sangiovese.

The 2007 Antoine Arena Morta Maio was simply beautiful. Antoine Arena is the star of Corsica. Doing everything as natural as possible, using absolutely no chemicals or fertilizers, only indigenous yeast, his wines always show great purity and depth. Here also, no wood at all is used but instead concrete or stainless steel tanks. This is 100% Niellucciu, young vines (replanted in 2001).
For such young vines, this is fantastic. Very sangiovese like with a lot of pure red fruits, dusty cherry. The tannins needs to soften up a little bit but give the wine its strcuture. Earthy with very good acidity. Bravo !

The last wine was a 2007 Yves Leccia Patrimonio. Yves Leccia left the family winery in 2004 to create his Domaine d'E Croce. Vines are around 20 years old and here also everything is made with respect to the soil. Schiste, calcareous and clay are the main types of soil. Here 10% of grenache complements the niellucciu. At this point, it needs more time than the Morta Maio. Lot of fruits, you can feel the potential is here but it will blossom in 4-6 years. Dark cherry with a very velvety texture. Some herbs with a nice mix of red/dark fruits. Overall, less acidity and a little darker profile than the Morta Maio. Very good as well.

Overall this was a pretty awesome lineup with all wines showing well. It is so nice to see well know producers not falling for new wood. Those wines all showed an outstanding purity along with a sense of place. This is all that we are looking for....