Clos Marfisi ‘Uva’ Rouge
Location: France, Corsica
Winemaker: Julie & Mathieu Marfisi
Grapes: Niellucciu, Minustellu, Carcaghjolu Neru
Winemaking: Blend of 25 % Minustellu, 25% Carcaghjolu Neru (both local, oft overlooked grapes), and 50% Niellucciu, all sourced from the Ravagnola vineyard. Fermented and aged in stainless steel, half is direct press juice, half is fermented whole cluster.
From us at M&L: A keen sense of place - its history and its landscape - and a clever, intrepid touch in the cellar make the wines of Corsica’s Clos Marfisi something we always look forward to.
Mathieu and Julie, brother and sister team, are fifth generation growers in Patrimonio. Wine is grown in different sites across the island, but Patrimonio is special: an amphitheater of limestone jutting right out of the sea. In some cases there is virtually no topsoil, just bald beautiful stones. This gift makes for appetizingly fresh wines that can also be quite long lived.
Here, Julie and Mathieu only work with native varieties (one way that they stay connected to the area’s venerable history), and they focus on three remarkable vineyards, Grotta di Sole, Gritole, and Ravagnola.
Today we are celebrating the arrival of three gorgeous wines, all from the stunning Ravagnola site. Silt and clay barely cover the west-facing limestone hills here, and the site is planted to a special array of local grapes: Niellucciu, Minustellu, and Carcaghjolu Neru.
Each wine is an ingenious look at how to treat a single parcel. There is a classic Patrimonio of Niellucciu offering deep aromas and deep poise, a field blend showcasing the balance of shrubby herbs and fresh coastal fruits, and an inspired blanc de noir of gravity-pulled free run Niellucciu owing to the fact that there was no white wine made in ‘22.
From the Importer Selection Massale: If you aren’t familiar with Corsica, the main event is Patrimonio. This AOC covers 400ha with half of them being owned by the two largest producers, and the other half split up amongst 30 smaller growers. If you haven’t already guessed, Clos Marfisi is part of the latter. Brother and sister, Mathieu and Julie are fifth generation at the helm of this estate, having taken over from their father, Touissant, when Julie returned in 2001, and her brother in 2012, from having careers elsewhere in France.
Now, we thought that we had seen it all in terms of limestone, but Corsica takes the cake. Clos Marfisi’s vineyards (which Touissant planted about 40-50 years ago) rise up from the Mediterranean with southern and western exposures on steep slopes that are practically white with large chunks of broken up limestone. Seriously impressive. Equally impressive is the fact that they never gave into outside pressure and the entirety of the estate is planted to local varieties, so you won’t find any Grenache here. Their father is still very active in the vineyards, and is the main reason that this estate has never been touched by pesticides or herbicides, which were shunned for one reason or another by previous generations of vignerons on the island. This commitment to organics continues and the estate will be certified Bio by the 2018 vintage. Vestiges of the old guard remain in the cellar as well where native yeasts have always been used for fermentations, and sulfur levels are kept to a minimum. As president of the Patrimonio AOC, Mathieu has a clear vision for where the estate is headed, and we like what we are seeing. Their commitment to honoring the past while shaping their own future is incredibly exciting to us.
Location: France, Corsica
Winemaker: Julie & Mathieu Marfisi
Grapes: Niellucciu, Minustellu, Carcaghjolu Neru
Winemaking: Blend of 25 % Minustellu, 25% Carcaghjolu Neru (both local, oft overlooked grapes), and 50% Niellucciu, all sourced from the Ravagnola vineyard. Fermented and aged in stainless steel, half is direct press juice, half is fermented whole cluster.
From us at M&L: A keen sense of place - its history and its landscape - and a clever, intrepid touch in the cellar make the wines of Corsica’s Clos Marfisi something we always look forward to.
Mathieu and Julie, brother and sister team, are fifth generation growers in Patrimonio. Wine is grown in different sites across the island, but Patrimonio is special: an amphitheater of limestone jutting right out of the sea. In some cases there is virtually no topsoil, just bald beautiful stones. This gift makes for appetizingly fresh wines that can also be quite long lived.
Here, Julie and Mathieu only work with native varieties (one way that they stay connected to the area’s venerable history), and they focus on three remarkable vineyards, Grotta di Sole, Gritole, and Ravagnola.
Today we are celebrating the arrival of three gorgeous wines, all from the stunning Ravagnola site. Silt and clay barely cover the west-facing limestone hills here, and the site is planted to a special array of local grapes: Niellucciu, Minustellu, and Carcaghjolu Neru.
Each wine is an ingenious look at how to treat a single parcel. There is a classic Patrimonio of Niellucciu offering deep aromas and deep poise, a field blend showcasing the balance of shrubby herbs and fresh coastal fruits, and an inspired blanc de noir of gravity-pulled free run Niellucciu owing to the fact that there was no white wine made in ‘22.
From the Importer Selection Massale: If you aren’t familiar with Corsica, the main event is Patrimonio. This AOC covers 400ha with half of them being owned by the two largest producers, and the other half split up amongst 30 smaller growers. If you haven’t already guessed, Clos Marfisi is part of the latter. Brother and sister, Mathieu and Julie are fifth generation at the helm of this estate, having taken over from their father, Touissant, when Julie returned in 2001, and her brother in 2012, from having careers elsewhere in France.
Now, we thought that we had seen it all in terms of limestone, but Corsica takes the cake. Clos Marfisi’s vineyards (which Touissant planted about 40-50 years ago) rise up from the Mediterranean with southern and western exposures on steep slopes that are practically white with large chunks of broken up limestone. Seriously impressive. Equally impressive is the fact that they never gave into outside pressure and the entirety of the estate is planted to local varieties, so you won’t find any Grenache here. Their father is still very active in the vineyards, and is the main reason that this estate has never been touched by pesticides or herbicides, which were shunned for one reason or another by previous generations of vignerons on the island. This commitment to organics continues and the estate will be certified Bio by the 2018 vintage. Vestiges of the old guard remain in the cellar as well where native yeasts have always been used for fermentations, and sulfur levels are kept to a minimum. As president of the Patrimonio AOC, Mathieu has a clear vision for where the estate is headed, and we like what we are seeing. Their commitment to honoring the past while shaping their own future is incredibly exciting to us.
Location: France, Corsica
Winemaker: Julie & Mathieu Marfisi
Grapes: Niellucciu, Minustellu, Carcaghjolu Neru
Winemaking: Blend of 25 % Minustellu, 25% Carcaghjolu Neru (both local, oft overlooked grapes), and 50% Niellucciu, all sourced from the Ravagnola vineyard. Fermented and aged in stainless steel, half is direct press juice, half is fermented whole cluster.
From us at M&L: A keen sense of place - its history and its landscape - and a clever, intrepid touch in the cellar make the wines of Corsica’s Clos Marfisi something we always look forward to.
Mathieu and Julie, brother and sister team, are fifth generation growers in Patrimonio. Wine is grown in different sites across the island, but Patrimonio is special: an amphitheater of limestone jutting right out of the sea. In some cases there is virtually no topsoil, just bald beautiful stones. This gift makes for appetizingly fresh wines that can also be quite long lived.
Here, Julie and Mathieu only work with native varieties (one way that they stay connected to the area’s venerable history), and they focus on three remarkable vineyards, Grotta di Sole, Gritole, and Ravagnola.
Today we are celebrating the arrival of three gorgeous wines, all from the stunning Ravagnola site. Silt and clay barely cover the west-facing limestone hills here, and the site is planted to a special array of local grapes: Niellucciu, Minustellu, and Carcaghjolu Neru.
Each wine is an ingenious look at how to treat a single parcel. There is a classic Patrimonio of Niellucciu offering deep aromas and deep poise, a field blend showcasing the balance of shrubby herbs and fresh coastal fruits, and an inspired blanc de noir of gravity-pulled free run Niellucciu owing to the fact that there was no white wine made in ‘22.
From the Importer Selection Massale: If you aren’t familiar with Corsica, the main event is Patrimonio. This AOC covers 400ha with half of them being owned by the two largest producers, and the other half split up amongst 30 smaller growers. If you haven’t already guessed, Clos Marfisi is part of the latter. Brother and sister, Mathieu and Julie are fifth generation at the helm of this estate, having taken over from their father, Touissant, when Julie returned in 2001, and her brother in 2012, from having careers elsewhere in France.
Now, we thought that we had seen it all in terms of limestone, but Corsica takes the cake. Clos Marfisi’s vineyards (which Touissant planted about 40-50 years ago) rise up from the Mediterranean with southern and western exposures on steep slopes that are practically white with large chunks of broken up limestone. Seriously impressive. Equally impressive is the fact that they never gave into outside pressure and the entirety of the estate is planted to local varieties, so you won’t find any Grenache here. Their father is still very active in the vineyards, and is the main reason that this estate has never been touched by pesticides or herbicides, which were shunned for one reason or another by previous generations of vignerons on the island. This commitment to organics continues and the estate will be certified Bio by the 2018 vintage. Vestiges of the old guard remain in the cellar as well where native yeasts have always been used for fermentations, and sulfur levels are kept to a minimum. As president of the Patrimonio AOC, Mathieu has a clear vision for where the estate is headed, and we like what we are seeing. Their commitment to honoring the past while shaping their own future is incredibly exciting to us.