Meet Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu, Carcaghjolu Neru, and Minustellu from Corsica!

If you’re looking for something new and exciting to liven up your wintry days, or maybe looking for something a bit romantically French just in time for Valentine’s, how about a new to you French grape or region? Honestly, it’s been a miserable January here in Southern California with fog and fires and wind and power outages, and now it’s drizzly with major storms on the horizon. So we’re ready to travel –by glass anyway –to Corsica, a French island in the Mediterranean Sea that offers unusual wines made by uncommon grapes like Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu, Carcaghjolu Neru, and Minustellu. We chose these wines and focus also because they fit February’s Winophiles prompt on forgotten grapes or lesser known regions of France; read the invitation at Savor the Harvest from Lynn Gowdy here, and scroll down for links to articles by my fellow #Winophiles. For a catalogue of wine grape varieties grown in France, many of which you may have never heard of, check this out.

While originally we were going to write about a picpoul terret blend that I found at Grocery Outlet and which has become a go to wine here at home because we eat a lot of seafood and it goes so well, I started digging around and found these three wines from Corsica with grapes that I wondered if we’d ever had or written about. 

Vignobles_corse — source wikipedia

Corsica has a long history of winemaking, and its vineyards are famous for unique grape varieties such as Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu, Carcaghjolu Neru, or Minustellu and diverse terroir which is conducive to organic, traditional, and natural winemaking. I’ve tasted some of these wines at RAW wine in LA, and look forward to tasting new vintages at the next edition that comes to LA. 

Viticulture on Corsica was decimated by two factors which led to the abandonment of the vineyards: the 1880s phylloxera epidemic, then two world wars where men left the island to fight. In the 1960’s, following the end of the War of Independence, Algerian colonists moved to Corsica bringing winemaking techniques and vines such as Grenache and Carignan, and revitalized the industry– including wines made from indigenous grapes like the ones described below.

Sciaccarellu is actually a red Italian wine grape grown primarily in France’s island of Corsica where it does best in Ajaccio producing highly perfumed wines. Often blended, it offers soft, spicy, easy to enjoy red and rosé wine.

Nielluccio is the third most common grape to Corsica and grows few other places. The principal grape used in the  Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée AOC red wine Patrimonio (required to be 95% of the blend), it buds early, lacks color, has high alcohol, and often is made into rosé. It also might be from Italy, possibly related to Sangiovese.

Carcaghjolu neru in France is also known in the European Union as Bovale (Italy), Parraleta (Spain) and Tinta Caiada (Portugal) and also knows as Carcajolo Nero.  A dark-skinned variety known for its intense coloring, surprisingly the wines are light-bodied with low acidity and high alcohol levels.

Minustellu  has a deep ruby color, aromas of undergrowth and leather, and on the palate fruity and spicy with a nice roundness I learned from this site about the grapes and wines of Corsica here. There’s more info there but it’s in French.

So what were our wines? What did we think? How did we pair them and how did that go? 

Meet Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu, Carcaghjolu Neru, and Minustellu from Corsica!

Wines 

• 2021 Corsican “Ile De Beaute” IGP Corsica

• 2021 Clos Alivu Rose Patrimonio AOP

• 2015 Domaine De Vaccelli Unu Appelation Ajaccio Protegee

Menu

• Cheese Board: herb crusted goat cheese, humbolt fog, St Angel brie, prosciutto, salt cured olive  
• Ceasar Salad with caper stuffed anchovies 
• Fresh seared ahi tuna 
• Cassoulet (made in the instant pot)

2021 Corsican “Ile De Beaute” IGP Corsica

2021 Corsican “Ile De Beaute” IGP Corsica

ABV: 12.0%
SRP: around $20
Grapes: Sciaccarellu
Importer: Wine Agencies Inc.
purchased possibly at Grocery Outlet 

Usually rose is a summer wine drank young. So I wondered how it would be and was happy that it wasn’t just drinkable but fun and food friendly. 

Appearance:  Very pale, so pale I wasn’t sure if it was a white wine or a rose, white gold, hint of apricot, platinum rim. 

Aroma: Meadow, Meyer lemon, chamomile, rose geranium, meadow, white sage, oregano.

Palate: Very smooth, cherry, strawberry, cherry phosphate, raspberry, bay leaf, minerals, very dry, acidic. 

Pairing: Nice summer wine, but great for winter too when you’re wishing for summer! The wine was so perfect with the prosciutto that Sue suggested with a cantaloupe prosciutto balsamic appetizer. The prosciutto highlighted the Meyer lemon flavors in the wine but fought a bit with the salt cured olive with both the wine and the olive becomeing bitter. I did not like the herb crusted goat cheese at all because it highlighted everything I don’t like about chives, however Sue thought it was a very nice pairing. Neither of us cared for the humbolt fog cheese when paired with the wine, but it did  work well with the St. Angel cheese. Very nice with the Ceasar Salad as the wine loves the parmesan and the caper stuffed anchovies put the dish over the top with the wine. The tuna melts in your mouth; the salinity in the wine comes forth and brings out a lovely sweetness in the seared tuna. The smoky quality in the cassoulet brings out fruit in the wine; the cassoulet is so rich and the wine is so bright and acidic, so the two go well together with wine cooling the palate and cutting through the fatty richness. 

2021 Clos Alivu Rose Patrimonio AOP

ABV: 13%
SRP: around $20
Grapes: 100% Niellucciu
Importer: Wine Agencies Inc.
purchased possibly at Grocery Outlet 

Eric Polli works with native grape varieties like Vermentino for white wines and Niellucciu for reds and rosés, and he grows organically because his vineyards on the Petra Bianca soils of Patrimonio’s hillsides rarely require treatments, according to the importer, and the region’s “sun and winds allow for environmentally friendly agricultural practices with limited use of herbicides and pesticides, ensuring that the grapes ripen perfectly for the harvest.”

Appearance:  Very pale, rose gold, palest of platinum rim, 

Aroma: Plum, rhubarb, clay, diatomaceous earth,  cherry, raspberry, rose geranium, soft and nice, fresh, violet, 

Palate: Bright tart fruit, cherry, raspberry, Santa Rosa plum, red mulberries, rhubarb, interesting the way that it lays on the palate, tannins, fruit finish goes on for a very long time, 

Pairing: Cured meat always goes so well with rose and this is no exception. The wine makes the olive so juicy. The herb crusted goat cheese are great together there is a yin and a yang between the tart herbal goat cheese and the fruit forward wine, the same is true about the humbolt fog and the wine, the wine is fresh fruity and alive with everything that it was presented with on our cheese tray, the cassoulet and the wine worked perfectly together but it was not a pairing that either one of us thought was as exceptional as with the Ile de Beaute. Seared tuna brings out lovely fruit in the wine, seared ahi tuna on a salad would work. I really liked the tuna with this wine. It was a nice easy going pairing. The wine and the Cesar Salad are alright together but they do not necessarily shine together, however, when you get a bite of the caper stuffed anchovy the dish becomes a bit more interesting. 

2015 Domaine De Vaccelli Unu Appelation Ajaccio Protegee

ABV: 14.5%
SRP: $29 
Grapes: 92% Sciaccarellu, 4% Carcaghjolu Neru, 4% Minustellu
Importer: Caroline Debbane Selections
purchased at Wine House LA

Algerian Roger Courrèges and his family owned a large vineyard south of Algiers, and moved in the 1960s to Corsica where they bought the Vaccelli estate on the granite hillsides of Cognocoli-Monticchi, in the southern part of the Ajaccio appellation, and tore out all the old dead vines to plant Grenache, Alicante, Cinsault, Sciaccarellu and Muscat d’Alexandrie. Alain took over in 1974, and replanted with the native Corsican grape varietals of Sciaccarellu and Vermentinu. His son Gérard formally trained in oenology in Nîmes and training at Clos Capitoro in Ajaccio, and took over as winemaker in 2000. Along with his sister, Nathalie, Gérard also manages of Domaine de Vaccelli. Their vineyards became certified organic in 2019. More info here about this producer.

Appearance:  Garnet, brickish rim, light in body, translucent, 

Aroma: Rhubarb, cherry, raspberry, eucalyptus, pennyroyal, anise, bay, carnation, mulberry, 

Palate: Very dry, very tannic, bright and fruity, tart cherry, raspberry, mulberry, big bold wine yet light and fruity, 

Pairing: Cured meat bring out bright fruit in the wine and the wine enhances the cured meat, a win win pairing. Very nice with the salt cured olives rich salty olives heightens the fruit, and the tannins that were so bold without food are completely tamed. great with the herb crusted goat cheese, fabulous with the cypress grove humbolt fog cheese being a wow pairing, perfect with the St. Angel cheese, the wine went perfectly with everything on our cheese plate and the warm crunchy sourdough bread. The Ceasar Salad and the wine actually work quite nice together especially when you get a bite of salad with everything in it the salty caper stuffed anchovy the salad and the cheese. It works very nicely. The rich tuna works beautifully with the wine. I wouldn’t normally put seared tuna on a Cesar Salad but it works so well with this wine. Very nice with the cassoulet. The wine is perfect with the smokey rich dish, it brings out such beautiful cherry fruit in the wine and the bright tart fruit cuts the richness and the heavy qualities of the dish. All of this heavy richness is balanced by the wine, the wine also brings out the spices and the herbs that are present in the cassoulet. 

Find new regions and more “forgotten” grapes from the French Winophiles writers this month: