Wine
Corsican wine benefit from five Controlled Designations of Origin ("Appellation d'Origine Controllée" or AOC) and one Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).
Regarding the AOC, there are :
- Two main appellations: "Ajaccio" and "Patrimonio".
- And one "village" type appellation: "Vin de Corse" or "Corse" followed by "Calvi", "Sartène", "Figari", "Porto-Vecchio" or "Coteaux du Cap Corse".
- One regional appellation: "Vins de Corse"
- One appellation for natural sweet wines "Muscat du Cap Corse".
With regard to the PGI, there are two types of wine with the "Ile de Beauté" appellation :
- varietal wines: sold under a brand name or an estate name, they are vinified from a blend of Corsican (Niellucciu, Vermentinu, Sciaccarellu, etc.) and continental (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc.) grapes.
- Nouveau wines: they are sold from the third Thursday of October onwards.
Grape harvesting usually starts between 15 and 25 August for the earliest grape varieties; it finishes at the end of September, and up to November for the late harvesting of certain types of grapes.
