What promising results from only the second crop off of these vines! Arena’s 2009 Patrimonio Rose – to whose Niellucciu is added 20% Vermentinu – smells alluringly of cranshaw and musk melons, pink grapefruit rind and salt spray, all of which go on to inform a luscious, subtly waxy, infectiously juicy palate whose zesty pungency and mouthwatering salinity combine for an invigorating and refreshing finish. I would not be surprised to witness this going strong for another year. Arguably Corsica’s most renowned vinous ambassador – certainly the island’s grower who has made the greatest waves in fashionable French wine circles (not least among self-proclaimed “naturalists”) and internationally – Antoine Arena was inspired in the mid-1970s by Corsica’s independence movement to quit a law career on the French mainland and become a wine grower like his ancestors on the ruggedly chalky slopes of Patrimonio, a career now shared with his two sons. Their wines are as distinctively delicious and intriguing as any in France. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to taste either this estate’s white or red Patrimonio from old vines named for the “Grotte di Sole” parcel, nor its white from Bianco Gentile, a native variety long thought extinct; rediscovered by researchers; and which Arena has since championed.Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524- 1524
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