I have been studying for my French Wine Scholar certificate this fall and we just went over Corsican wines. I have had a few wines from Corsica through the years but never this one by Domaine Giacometti which I had last night at Intersect by Lexus. Made with Sciaccarello, the grapes were hand harvested and fermented in stainless steel tanks with ambient yeast. It ages on its lees for nine months and is not filtered. I liked it a lot. It had purity of fruit, a nice zing to it and a very smooth mouthfeel. Sciaccarello I learned this week is the same grape as the Italian one called Mammolo which grows in Tuscany and is an essential component in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.

The grapes are grown on Granitic Sand soils and are 17 years of age. The winery is located in the Patrimonio Appellation in the northern part of the country. It was Corsica’s first AOC wine, designated in 1968, This wine is not an AOC wine but the attention to all aspects of it is the same. The winery has been operating since the 1980s. Most Patrimonio is made with Nielluccio (Sangiovese). Kermit Lynch who seems to have the strongest portfolio of Corsican wines brings this one in as well.