Le Clos d'Alzeto: Almost two hundred years of terroir in the making.
Many speak of wine terroir as if it was a gift of Mother Nature. Those with such ideas need to visit the Le Clos d’Alzeto vineyard on the western coast of Corsica, just north of the island’s capitol city, Ajaccio. Corsica is like someone had grabbed a handful of mountain off of the mainland and hurled it into the blue Mediterranean waters. Its mountainous flanks, blanketed with sometimes-impenetrable maquis scrubland, rise up at dizzying angles from the sea. There is an aura of savage, rugged insularity that is both fascinating and frightening.
Set back from the coast to avoid attracting the attention of Barbary corsairs, Sari d'Orcino sits peacefully now in the Cainarca valley, high above the Golfe de la Liscia.
The Clos d’Alzeto is located near the village of Sari d’Orcino, 400 meters (1,312 feet) high up the Cinarca valley. The vineyards rise up the valley’s eastern side a further 100 meters (328 feet), making this the highest vineyard in Corsica. As postcard beautiful as it is, with views of the Golfe de la Liscia far below, this valley and the surrounding region have a violent and bloody history dating back centuries. Look closely at Sari d’Orcino and the other nearby villages: instead of being perched on the seaside cliffs, with magnificent views, they are built back from the coast. This afforded their 8th and 9th-century inhabitants some protection from the fierce Barbary corsairs who periodically raided these coasts for slaves and treasure. From the 10th through the 13th century, the Cinarca valley was the home of the powerful Cinarchesi, a family of corrupt, self-titled nobles who ruled much of the southern part of the island with treachery and fear.
Pascal and Alexis Albertini
Much more peaceably, the Albertini family has been investing itself in this terroir since 1820, handing down the estate from father to son. In the 1970s, when the present owner, Pascal Albertini, began to work on the estate, there were less than 10 hectares of vines. He convinced his father and uncle to mortgage the family house to finance a massive effort, with bulldozer, sweat and hand labor, to carve out south-by-southwestern-facing slopes and terraces from the property’s granite rocks. Over 43 hectares of vines and 1,500 olive trees now sit among restored sheepherder huts. Where once pirates pillaged, where despotic rulers in medieval times tyrannized the locals, where–in more recent times, bandits of honor retreated into the maquis, there is now the serenity, beauty and order that exists when well-tended vines are placed intelligently into a Mediterranean setting.
Betting the house paid off for the Albertini family. These are perfect conditions for the vines that they’ve planted here: the native Sciaccarellu, the Niellucciu that is a first-cousin of Tuscany’s Sangiovese, the Vermentinu, also known as the “Malvoisie de Corse,” and Grenache (another variety permitted in the AOC Ajaccio appellation). Decomposed granite, with traces of clay here and there, provides good drainage, essential mineral elements, and just enough nutrition to stress the vines into producing grapes with maximum taste. This area of Corsica holds the record for France with over 340 days of sunshine per year. Sea breezes act as both fan and insulator here: they moderate rising temperatures in the summer (the vineyard’s altitude also helps to keep the grapes cool), while, at night, the nearby body of water helps to warm the vineyards. Less variability in temperature allows the grapes to ripen more fully, better promoting their flavor, intensity and balance.
High-tech tanks control the fermentation temperature and gently control the wine vinification process.
The Clos d’Alzeto’s premier wine, the Cuvée Prestige, is 80% Sciaccarellu and 20% Niellucciu. The grapes are hand harvested from 35-year-old vines with a yield of only 30 hectoliters per hectare (the AOC Ajaccio appellation permits up to 35 hl/ha). After being sorted to remove any undesirable grapes, the stems are removed, and the two types of grapes are placed together in stainless steel tanks. Several hours later, a small amount of the juice is removed to help concentrate what remains before the fermentation begins, using indigenous yeasts from the vineyard.
Impeccably clean, intelligently designed, and equipped with the latest technology, the Clos d'Alzeto cellar is as beautiful as it is functional. Pascal Albertini drew up the design himself of what is arguably one of the finest wine cellar on the entire island.
High-tech fermentation tanks are used at the Clos d’Alzeto. Besides being temperature-controlled (the Cuvée Prestige is fermented at a constant
30 °C, or 86 °F), these tanks have plates that push down the cap (the skins, seeds and pulp that float to the surface of the wine) and a built-in pump to circulate the wine from the bottom of the tank over this mass, gently extracting color and tannins from the grapes. Daily tasting of the wine, along with laboratory analysis controls, determines when the wine is removed from the tanks. Following a malolactic fermentation, three years of aging begins: one year in stainless steel tanks, one year in 60-hectoliter (6,000-liter) oak barrels, and then one year of bottle aging.
Made only in exceptional years, when the Albertinis judge that the grapes merit this careful vinification, the Cuvée Prestige can be kept for up to 10 to 15 years. Your patience will be rewarded with a refined wine; the Niellucciu gives it balance and strength, while the tougher-skinned, darker Sciaccarellu provides robustly textured tannins, herbaceous, red-fruit aromas, and that variety’s distinctively spicy, peppery notes.
Almost impossible to find on mainland France—Le Clos d’Alzeto, like almost all of the other quality wine producers on the island, sells 80-90% of its wines in Corsica, leaving little for export—you’ll probably need to visit the property yourself to taste the Cuvée Prestige, or the other red wine that it makes—the Tradition, or its delicious white wine with a stunning minerality, the Blanc de Blanc.
The Blanc de Blanc exhibits all of the positive, full-bodied, fragrant characteristics of the late-ripening, white Vermentinu grape (called, as already mentioned, the “Malvoisie de Corse,” but also known in Corsica and Italy as Vermentino, and just to make it more complicated, it’s called Rolle in Southern France). It has a natural acidity due to the moderate temperature variations found at the Clos d’Alzeto, with refreshing exotic fruit/melon flavors and floral aromas of white flowers. Aged on the lees, the sediment at the bottom of the tank made up of dead yeast cells, grape seeds, stems, pulp and skin fragments, the wine’s structure and mouth feel is further enhanced by a technique first developed in Burgundy. First, the lees are removed from the tank for one month, during which they’re regularly stirred to release polysaccharides from the dead yeast cells–significantly reducing astringency. The lees are then returned to the tank for a further five or six weeks of aging. The result is a gorgeously complex wine.
Barbeque a sea bass on a wood fire with lemon, olive oil and coarse sea salt, then open a bottle of this Blanc de Blanc to accompany it, and you’ll almost believe that you’re dining on a white, sandy Mediterranean beach.
Another reason to visit the Clos d'Alzeto: Le Blanc doux, a late-harvest, naturally sweet wine made from the Vermentinu grape. This little jewel is light, fresh, surprisingly dry, and only available at the estate cellar.
The family’s almost two-century-long tradition of passing the Clos d’Alzeto from father to son continues. Pascal Albertini’s son, Alexis, who spent two years studying for his oenology degree in Montpellier, is increasingly involved in the vineyard and wine cellar. So, it’s clear that terroir is a combination of all the components that interact directly or indirectly on an area: the soil, the orientation, the climate, surrounding elements (mountains or sea), and the work done by those charged with preserving the tradition of the land. It all looks so natural—terroir, but behind it is the intelligence to get the total interaction of climate, soil and specific site just right.
