Domaine Giudicelli

Located in the heart of Patrimonio, one of Corsica’s most prestigious appellations, Domaine Giudicelli embodies the raw beauty and authenticity of the island’s winemaking tradition. Muriel' s parents were teachers; she had to learn everything about wine from school. It is where she became friends with Antoine Arena, a great winemaker in Patrimonio. In 1996, Arena called Muriel and told her about a retiring winegrower in the region. That’s how Muriel bought her first 5 hectares of vines, old vines from a retiring winemaker and launch her own domaine on the island.

She made her first vintage in 1997 and she is now one of the leading winemakers in Corsica. Muriel now works 10ha of vines alongside her husband in the Campo Gallo (“field of the rooster”) sub-region of Patrimonio – an area noted for its pockets of green and red clay, granite, schist, and limestone, as well as being on course to become the first entirely organically farmed appellation in Europe. Muriel’s vineyards have been certified biodynamic since 2012. Yves Leccia’s parcels border her vines.
The work in the vineyard as well as in the cellar is based on the lunar calendar.
On the different soils of the vineyard (red and grey clay, clay-limestone, granite, and schist) many varieties are cultivated: grenache, vermentinu, niellucciu, sciaccarellu and muscat à petits grains. Numerous sortings are carried out at harvest time, these are done in several passages to obtain optimal ripeness for the grapes.
In the cellar, Murielle does not intervene much, everything lies in the quality of her grapes. No crushing or punching of the cap for the reds, the berries infuse slowly. The whites are gently pressed in whole bunches. The wines are matured for varying lengths of time depending on the vintage and are mostly aged in “foudres” (some stainless-steel vats are used for certain vintages).

The wines are neither filtered nor fined, and sulphur is used in homeopathic doses at bottling. All this work of respect for the grapes and the wine naturally gives results that match the work done: clean, fine, and lively wines. The reds are racy, supple, and fruity. The whites are chiselled, precise and clean.

Domaine Giudicelli produces wines in tiny quantities. Interest in Corsica’s wine landscape is skyrocketing. Already enormously popular with sommeliers in Paris or NYC, Domaine Giudicelli’s wines are now among the island’s most sought after.