As its name suggests, from a site high on the concave, rocky slope of Arena’s Carco vineyard, Arena’s all-Vermentinu 2009 Patrimonio Haut de Carco Blanc is scented with heliotrope, lily, candied lime and grapefruit peel, and sea breeze. Silken-textured and expansive, it combines herbal pungency, mouthwatering salinity, pink grapefruit rind piquancy and persistent inner-mouth floral perfume with hints of brown spices and nougat. The juxtaposition of nearly confectionary with citric, herbal, and mineral notes is utterly absorbing, and the wine’s long finish both rich and refreshing. Arguably Corsica’s most renowned vinous ambassador – certainly the island’s grower who has made the greatest waves in fashionable French wine circles (not least among self-proclaimed “naturalists”) and internationally – Antoine Arena was inspired in the mid-1970s by Corsica’s independence movement to quit a law career on the French mainland and become a wine grower like his ancestors on the ruggedly chalky slopes of Patrimonio, a career now shared with his two sons. Their wines are as distinctively delicious and intriguing as any in France. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to taste either this estate’s white or red Patrimonio from old vines named for the “Grotte di Sole” parcel, nor its white from Bianco Gentile, a native variety long thought extinct; rediscovered by researchers; and which Arena has since championed.Importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, CA; tel. (510) 524- 1524