Corsica Report - Clos Marfisi

Mathieu and Guilhaume overlooking the Ravagnola parcel.

As Mathieu explains it Clos Marfisi could have had a near perfect year. At the end of the year, the quality of the fruit was near perfect, something unexpected early in the season when the pressure from mildew was extreme. Something Mathieu, Toussaint and Julie are very unaccustomed to in Patrimonio. At the end of the day, they managed their treatments early enough to not suffer as much as some others and after veraison the year was hot and dry, and harvest started on the 13th of August.

The problem came in the days before harvest, when Mathieu was in the vineyards checking fruit that he noticed wild boars had been going hard in his Ravagnola vineyard right beside the "maquis" (the dense brush called garrigue in France) which cost them about 160 hectoliters in total (about 40% of his crop), a blow in a year where they were expecting above average yields with high-quality fruit.

In the cellar Mathieu is happy with the wines so far, though it's early of course. It's going to be a fresh year at the clos, with wines in the 12% ABV range.

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