Corsica is a fascinating place. L'île de Beauté, the beautiful island, is extremely mountainous and windy, with peaks higher than any in the continental US, and non-storm-generated winds that regularly exceed hurricane forces, that has traded hands many, many times throughout the centuries, giving a complex and unique culture. Known mostly for rosé, the red wines are made from Nieluccio (the Corsican name for Sangiovese), Sciaccarellu (an indigenous grape) and Grenache (originally from neighboring Sardinia) with whites dominated by Vermentinu (the same grape as Vermentino). La Boutanche, a line of collaborations between Selection Massale, the natural wine import company, with some of their producers, has a variety of meanings in French including pure, the bottle and booze, and the collaborator in this case is Thomas Santamaria, who is the sixth generation of his family to run the estate located in Patrimonio AOC, the oldest appellation on the island, on the North coast. (Incidentally, each La Boutanche bottling features an anthropomorphized spirit animal of the winemaker. In this case a red kite that patrols the skies above the family’s vineyards.) Patrimonio has very complex soils of schist, granite and limestone, all of which are conducive to excellent Grenache, so when the Patrimonio AOC declared in 2000 that Patrimonio AOC wines had to be 90% Nieluccio, it was a controversial decision. Domaine Santamaria had and continues to have many excellent Grenache vines, so they have been producing Grenache dominant wines labeled as humble Vin de France. Thomas’ father converted the estate to certified organic farming and Thomas has been incorporating biodynamic practices in the farming and winery. The dry-farmed vines take on flavors from the surrounding wild scrub, called maquis, composed of fig, lavender, wild mint, thyme and rosemary–similar to the garrigue of southern France–that augment the ripe red berries and medium tannins. Would be excellent with some slow-cooked pork.