Top 100 wines of Corsica - Page 6

A little background first. The unstitching of France’s colonial empire in North Africa between 1956 and 1962 intensified political tensions on Corsica as well as giving rise to an ill-starred attempt by recently arrived French-Algerian wine farmers to turn Corsica’s eastern plains into a gigantic factory vineyard. Between 1960 and 2000, production rose four-fold – then collapsed. Away from the plains in the higher-quality appellation zones, meanwhile, an undiscerning tourist market combined with ...

In the last 20 years, that landscape has changed. The finest wines are now luxury goods: tokens of exclusivity. Exclusivity means exclusion. The high peaks are sealed off by fencing; only extraordinary wealth will get you through the gates. What used to be said of yachts (to move our metaphor offshore) is now true of grand cru Burgundy or luxury Champagne. If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it. Is there any duty on fine-wine producers to ‘be accessible’ in some way or other? ...

Rosé-tinted glasses aside, there is a reason – the modern economics of it mean that a €4 bottle of Côtes de Castillon or Montagne St-Emilion doesn’t translate into anything even comparable in price terms when on a UK shop shelf (assuming it could even get there). It’s the sad fact of commerciality. We taste hundreds of Bordeaux wines at every price point every year, to find those few gems that represent the best value for their quality. Even then, the volumes available might mean that a wine w ...