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2021 Patrimonio Rouge “E Croce”
Yves Leccia
Sandrine and Yves Leccia have harnessed the savory side of their “E Croce” plateau with this vintage; less emphasis on fruit and berry and instead, whiffs of smoke, earth, and warm maquis. In Corsican, niel means “black,” and ucciu is an endearing way to indicate something small. The Niellucciu variety is therefore “the little black one,” an apt translation for its dark, tightly coiled clusters that offer concentration and terroir in spades. Organically grown, just two miles from the Mediterranean, Leccia’s rouge has never made me more inspired to eat something cooked from nose-to-nail, with crackly skin on a rustic baguette, perhaps.
—Jane Augustine
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2021 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | 90% Niellucciu, 10% Grenache |
Appellation: | Patrimonio |
Country: | France |
Region: | Corsica |
Producer: | Yves Leccia |
Winemaker: | Yves Leccia |
Vineyard: | 20 to 40 years, 7.1 ha |
Soil: | Clay, Limestone, Schist |
Aging: | All red grapes are de-stemmed, then placed in stainless steel cuves for 12 to 15 days with daily pump-overs, then aged for 12 months |
Farming: | Organic (certified) |
Alcohol: | 13.5% |
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About The Producer
Yves Leccia
About The Region
Corsica
I first set foot on the island in 1980. I remember looking down from the airplane window seeing alpine forest and lakes and thinking, uh oh, I got on the wrong plane. Then suddenly I was looking down into the beautiful waters of the Mediterranean. Corsica is a small, impossibly tall island, the tail of the Alp chain rising out of the blue sea.—Kermit Lynch
Kermit’s first trip to the island proved fruitful, with his discovery of Clos Nicrosi’s Vermentino. More than thirty years later, the love affair with Corsica has only grown as we now import wines from ten domaines that cover the north, south, east, and west of what the French affectionately refer to as l’Île de Beauté.
Corsica is currently experiencing somewhat of a renaissance—interest has never been higher in the wines and much of this is due to growers focusing on indigenous and historical grapes found on the island. Niellucciu, Sciarcarellu, and Vermentinu are widely planted but it is now common to find bottlings of Biancu Gentile and Carcaghjolu Neru as well as blends with native varieties like Rossola Bianca, Minustellu, or Montaneccia.
As Kermit described above, Corsica has a strikingly mountainous landscape. The granite peaks top out above 9,000 feet. The terroir is predominantly granite with the exception of the Patrimonio appellation in the north, which has limestone, clay, and schist soils.The wines, much like their southern French counterparts make for great pairings with the local charcuterie, often made from Nustrale, the native wild boar, as well as Brocciu, the Corsican goats milk cheese that is best served within 48 hours of it being made.
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Where the newsletter started

Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch