On the trip mentioned in the original post now, so capturing some notes…
Nice: hadn’t been in 30 years and was pleasantly surprised, especially the wonderful morning market filled with humongous white and green asparagus, squash blossoms, local pastries, the most beautiful strawberries gariguette I’ve ever seen, etc. Chagall Museum is a must, stunning.
- La Parte des Anges - lovely little natural-leaning wine shop with a small area for dining. Dinner was simple but excellent tinned fish with herb butter and toasted baguette, a meat and cheese tray, and a separate order of a round of fresh local chevre drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and green onion. Fantastic. Short menu of wines by the glass that they offered tastes of liberally. Nothing earth shaking, but you can also pick any bottle of the shelf and open at retail price. Picked up a handful of wines for the trip ahead, including a stellar '09 Le Moutherot by Georges Comte, 15 Bandol Rouge, delicious La Dilettante sparkling vouvray, fascinating La Releve Tavel, and a few artisan pastis.
- Les Agitateurs - lunch at Michelin *, and it exceeded expectations. Prix fixe menus in a regular and vegetarian version, we tried both and glad we did. Creative, artful, flat out delicious, and clearly of the place, all while balancing casual elegance and adventurous cuisine. Had a rockin '20 Ramonet Bouzeron for 50 euro, and a pour from magnum of 21 Arnaud Baillot Bourgogne Cote D’Or (rouge, mais ouis) that hit the spot for friendly affordable burg.
Boarded the boat in Monaco, woke up in Saint Raphael. Waste of a port day, not much of interest, but had an excellent La Chouffe biere on draft with pomme frites at a seaside bar.
Next morning, Corsica, port of Bastia. We hired Patrimonio Wine Tours for a half day outing. Dominique is very knowledgeable and en excellent guide, highly recommended, both for the wine aspects but also for history and local culture. We drove up over the hills to overlook the Patrimonio wine region, absolutely beautiful and unique with ocean winds entering the valley.
- First stop was Yves Leccia, a few of whose wines make their way to the US via Kermit Lynch. Lovely little tasting room where we went through their YL Ile de Beaute rouge (80% grenache), E Croce rouge (90/10 Nielluciù/grenache) and blanc (vermentinu) Patrimonio, L’altru Viancu, E Croce rose (Nielluciù-based), and Muscat. All steel, no barrels. Clearly well made wines. I was pleasantly surprised with the elegance of the reds, herbal, cinnamon notes, clear presence of the unique limestone/schist/clay soils. Very pretty muscat du Cap Corse, pretty and floral, on the lighter side. Reminds me of Spain.
- Second stop was Domaine Orenga de Gaffory a few miles away, where we started in the vineyards then headed in to the tasting room. Tried the Vermentinu, 19 Cuvee Felice (90% Niellucciu/GRenache) and 19 Cuvee des Gouverneurs 100% Niellucciu, 2016 Scala Santa (90% Minustrellu/Nielluciu), 22 Rose (80% Nielluccio/Sciaccarellu) - all nice - they use used oak here selectively, for the Cuvee Felice for example, as these are more robust and benefit from it. But then we moved on to three muscat de cap corse. First the 22, then the 2013 Impassitu, then the 2008! The 22 was lovely, dense, on the syrupy side (v different than Yves Leccia), orange blossom and honey. The Impassitu (late harvest left out to dry further after picking) was denser still. And then the 08 really hit home, with almond and bitter orange notes, a touch towards sherry character, really outstanding.
- Nice lunch back in Bastia at L’epica, with outstanding fresh brebis-stuffed beignets to start! Other dishes (pasta with gambas, stuffed mussels, grilled dourade) were nice, but didn’t match the starter.
- Quick visit to Mattei “Concept Store” to taste their vermouth and liqueurs. A must. Very nice wine shop as well with a broad selection of french wines and spirits from around the world.
