Get 10% off the purchase price with every order of 12 bottles or more of still wine not already on sale. The savings add up!
Candela Prol, highly experienced certified wine educator and friend of the shop, is available for tastings and training for private and corporate events. For rates and other inquiries, please contact her at candelaprol@gmail.com .
*Offsite events are contracted to and coordinated by a 3rd party, and are in no way affiliated with Chambers Street Wines.
I've never been to Corsica, sadly. But on the list of wine regions I have yet to visit (an extremely long list), it is at the very top. I have a real jones for the island's wines. It's hard putting my finger on it but the best Corse wines walk a fine line between sturdy and silky, with a wild character that seems appropriate to a place that has always guarded its individuality even as it has absorbed the influences of France, Italy and North Africa over the centuries.
Corsica is a famously rugged island geologically, with a mother rock base of granite and mountains that rise to nearly 9,000 feet. There is a huge range of microclimates and soil types and the wines are suitably diverse as a result. Today's offering comes from the northern coast of the island in an area known as the Agriates Desert. It is largely uninhabited, with rocky clay and granite soils that present a challenge for even dedicated growers and it was here that Christian Giacometti chose to buy vines and establish his domaine in the late 1980s. The family has approximately thirty five hectares under vine, farmed organically without certification and everything done by hand in this very unforgiving place. Nearly all their bottlings, red and white both, fall under the Patrimonio AOC.
I'll confess that the Giaccometti wines were new to me until recently. They are part of Kermit Lynch's superlative Corsican portfolio. Kermit has championed the island's wines for many years now and the book includes many of the best known and most respected producers. When I tasted Giacometti's 2015 "Cuvée Sarah," my first thought was "Of course Kermit is selling these wines." The wine is nearly all Niellucciu, the Corse name for Sangiovese. Corsica has historical ties to the Tuscany (long pre-dating modern Italy) and Niellucciu is for all intents and purposes an indigenous variety, with a personality distinct from its Tuscan siblings. The remainder of the wine is Sciaccarellu and a splash of Grenache.
It's always exciting to find well-priced wines that feel ready to drink. With nearly seven years of age on it, this wine is in a great place, full of vivid red fruit, pine needles and rose, with little touches of leather and salt around the edges. There are lovely suave tannins and plenty of energy, even with the hot dry summer in 2015. This is a treat, really soulful, honest wine with a real terroir stamp, and worth stocking up on to drink now and over the next few years. As an extra incentive beyond sheer deliciousness, buy six bottles today and receive the case discount of 10%!! Sam Ehrlich
**This is a pre-arrival offer and will be in stock this Wednesday 4/6**
A big thanks to Kermit Lynch Wines for their fantastic website, a deep source of information for this offer!
Domaine Giacometti 2015 Patrimonio Cuvee Sarah
90% Niellucciu, 5% each of Sciaccarellu and Grenache from clay and granite soils. With nearly seven years of age on it, this wine is in a great place, full of vivid red fruit, pine needles and rose, with little touches of leather and salt around the edges. There are lovely suave tannins and plenty of energy, even with the hot dry summer in 2015. This is a treat, really soulful, honest wine with a real terroir stamp. Sam Ehrlich