Vineyard of Corsica

The Corsica vineyard extends all with around the Corsican littoral on ic grounds Granit (south and west), on Schiste S (is and northern), or on grounds Calcaire S. It is a bathed Mediterranean ground of sun and heat often moderated by the sea always very near.

Principal Type of vine S

Malvoisie with coarse grains
Nielluccio, red type of vine resembling the Sangiovese of Tuscan and principal type of vine of name Patrimonio in the north of the island. It covers 35% of the whole of the vineyards of the island. On the large soils as that of Patrimonio it gives remarkable wines but on the others it quickly tends to miss personality.
Sciacarello is a type of vine which is especially in the south of the island and covers 15% of the vineyards. It gives wines very fine and peppered with a beautiful structure but it is too often thin.
Vermentino is a type of vine with white wine. It is in fact a variety of malvoisy which produces very aromatic wines.
white Carcajolo, white type of vine
black Carcajolo, black type of vine

Vineyards

The Corsica vineyard is divided into ten names:

Corsican Vineyard (1 439 ha in 2005)
Vineyard of Patrimonio (409 ha in 2005), around Saint-Florent, the most homogeneous vineyard and the most famous wine.
Vineyard of Calvi (266 ha in 2005)
Vineyard of Ajaccio (239 ha in 2005)
Vineyard of Sartène (143 ha in 2005)
Vineyard of Figari (129 ha in 2005)
Vineyard of the Muscatel-of-course-Corsican (103 ha in 2005) who produces marrowy white wine in the extreme north of the island.
Vineyard of Porto-Vecchio (89 ha in 2005)
Vineyard of Slope-of-course-Corsican (37 ha in 2005)
Vineyard of Nicrosi in the north of Bastia

History

The vine growing begins in Corsica as of sixth century BC with the arrival from the Greeks, but the vine growing especially was developed by the Romans then during all the Moyen-âge.

At the 16th century, the cartographer Ignazio Danti who had painted Corsica with the ceiling of the gallery vaticane wrote: “ Corsica received four major gifts of nature: its horses, its dogs, its proud and courageous men and its wines, generosissimi, that the princes hold in the highest regard! ”.

With the XVIIIe and 19th century, the Corsican vine growing experiences a spectacular development. Between 1788 and 1896 its production makes more than to double, and the island can easily export towards the Paris region thanks to the arrival of the Railroad with Sète. At the end of the 19th century, the damage caused by the Phylloxéra is an economic catastrophe and the production crumbles.

At the beginning of the Years 1960, with the installation in Corsica of 17.000 repatriates of Algeria, the Corsican vine growing will be started again, but in a quasi industrial way, with the type of vine plantation with large outputs on nearly 14.000 hectares. Little by little the Corsican wines take the place occupied by the Algerian table wines in a range of table wines at low-costs and quality more than modest.

However this policy goes against the new spending patterns whereas the sales of table wines crumble starting from the Années 1970. In twenty years, the Corsican vine growing loses two thirds of its vineyards whose total surface passes 32.000 hectares to only 10.000 hectares at the end of the Années 1990, ruining the local economy.

But, as of the beginning of the Years 1990, of the wine growers start to react and preach quality. Today the Union of the Corsican wines and the inter-union Committee of the Corsican wines want to play the chart of export and to allure the overseas markets thanks to wines which will know to allure thanks to their structure.

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