Ajaccio is an appellation for the white, red and rosé wines of Corsica, the French island located in the Mediterranean Sea between the coasts of Provence and Italy. The wines of Ajaccio (the majority of which are medium-bodied, Spicy reds and rosés) were granted AOC status in 1984. Centered around the town of Ajaccio on the southwest coast of Corsica, the appellation includes some of the island's greatest vineyards. Sciaccarello (a traditional Corsican grape variety) is the key grape used in these wines, along with Barbarossa, Sangiovese (called Nielluccio here) and a host of other varieties, including Carignan, Cinsaut, CarcajoloNero and Grenache.
Ajaccio's white wines, which account for only a small portion of its total annual production, are made primarily from Vermentino (Corsica's main white grape) and Ugni Blanc. This blend is also commonly used in Provence, the closest mainland region to Corsica, both geographically and in terms of wine styles. In addition to being the main administrative center of Corsica, the city of Ajaccio is famous for being the birthplace of the French emperor Napoleon, whose childhood home is now a museum. .
Layers of colour in the sky before me: indigo, peach, salmon. In the rear-view mirror, the gold was catching fire. As I drove down through the lonely, Mistral-chilled vines of Babeau-Bouldoux towards nearby St-Chinian, I was thinking about what Christine Deleuze of Clos Bagatelle had just said. ‘When you came to visit 10 years ago,’ she reminded me, ‘you said we needed to wait another decade for a market breakthrough. Today you’ve said we need to wait another decade or two. So when, exactly, wil ...
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