Antoine and Marie Aréna are beloved personalities of the natural wine scene in France. They are a little older than most of their colleagues in that loose grouping, and revered as pioneers in their isolated corner of Corsica for the delicious wines they coax out of unforgiving rocky soils.

Vines have been grown in Corsica since the Greek antiquity, but it was only in 1968 that the Patrimonio wine area received the first AOC on the island. The region is close to the port of Bastia in northern Corsica, but on the western shore overlooking the gulf of St-Florent. It is surrounded by mountains that offer good protection from the winds, and has soils of clay and limestone where the grapes Muscat, Vermentinu and Niellucciu prosper.

It is believed that the only true indigenous Corsican grape is the Sciaccarellu, grown further south in the region of Ajaccio. The other traditional red, Niellucciu, is San Giovese from Tuscany, and the white Vermentinu is known elsewhere as Malvasia or Malvoisie. Muscat “à petits grains” is a particularly aromatic type of the varietal, and is vinified as vin doux naturel, i.e. a muted wine.

Antoine Aréna is leading the resurgence of an ancient local varietal, Bianco Gentile, which was rediscovered by a viticultural lab when they took a census of all the varietals in existence on the island. Aréna has planted a plot and now produces a Bianco Gentile as a Vin de Pays or Vin de Table, because the grape has not yet been included in the list of allowed varietals by the AOC.

Their estate has 13HA under vines, on limestone and clay and limestone soils, and the Aréna clan, with sons Jean-Baptiste and Antoine-Marie, have converted their cultural methods from organic to bio-dynamic in the last five years. The vines are plowed and worked under the row with hoes, harvesting is done by hand in stainless steel trailers. The grapes are pressed gently and all aging is done in stainless steel vats.

Two major named plots produce both red and white wines. Grotte di Sole is exposed full south, Vermentinu and Niellucciu are planted at a density of 5000 vines per HA. Carco is the other lieu-dit, with a slope looking east and another looking west, planted with 4000 vines per HA. Their hamlet, Morta Maio, provides the name for their third red wine.