Domaine Pieretti, Blanc Coteau du Cap Corse Corsica, France 2019 (750mL)

Look at a map of the island of Corsica and you’ll see a nodule jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea at the northern end, kind of like an extra-long big toe on a left foot: That’s the Coteaux du Cap Corse, and yes, the wine grown there is as rare and wild as you’d expect it to be. There is a “Coteaux du Cap Corse” wine appellation, but it’s a tiny one, with only about 40 hectares of vines to its name. Fourteen of those are farmed organically by the doggedly determined Lina Pieretti, and most of them spill down steeply toward the sea, whipped by winds and baked by sun—and yet the lively energy and evocative aromatics of this white, crafted from 100% Vermentino (a.k.a. Rolle), might have you thinking it hailed from someplace cold. But no, this is as Mediterranean as it gets, and Vermentino has demonstrated time and again that it can take the heat and still bring the cool, crisp flavors of the coast to the table. Much more than just a simple, salty quaffer, this textured, tension-filled white is going to move you, much as it did all of us. If you’d like a one-way ticket to the Mediterranean, we’ve got it right here!