Few history and data

History
     In Corsica, like in all the Mediterranean regions, the wine was introduced by the Greeks (6° century before J.C.).

     During the 19° century, some Corsican wines were exported to the French continent. We were able to find Corsican wines on the menus of some restaurants into the biggest cities (Paris, Marseille, Nice…). During the second-half of the 19° century, the Corsica suffered of the Phylloxéra, which devastated the vineyards all around the World. After this period and until the end of the Sixties, wine production was in lethargy.

    After the Algerian independence (1962), some winegrowers from North Africa went to Corsica. They brought capital and savoir-faire. The Algerian wines, with high degree of alcohol, were cut with French wines, with lower degree. The result of this mix was “table wine”, for the common consumption.

     Until the middle of the sixties, France used to consume a lot of wine, but it was in majority “table wine” of bad quality.

      The Frenchs tried to get around the problem of the loss of the Algeria, producing shearing wines in Corsica.

     But some Corsican winegrowers wanted to produce wine of better quality, corresponding to a National and International demand. So, the consumption decreased in terms of quantity, but the demand of “good wine” increased. 

      We observed a new tendency: consume less but consume smarter. This quality process avoided the development of the AOC (guarantee of quality of wine).

     (photo: http://www.skalli.fr/)

Production

     In 2012, around 335,000 hectolitres of wines were produced in Corsica. It included:

-12,000 hl of AOC
-10,000 hl of local wines
-The rest: table wine

The production by colours in Corsica:

- -50% of red wines

- -36% of rosé wines

- -12% of white wines

- -2% of Muscat

Selling

             35% of Corsican wines are sold on the Local market, 45% on the National market, and 20% of the production is exported abroad (principal markets: USA, Germany, and Belgium).