Winery Overview
The story of Domaine de Vaccelli began in 1962 when the Courrèges family settled on the granite hillsides of Cognocoli-Monticchi in the Taravo valley in the south of the Ajaccio appellation. Roger Courrèges slowly grew the domain until his son Alain took over in 1974. Passionate about the native varieties Sciaccarellu and Vermentinu’s potential in the south-east facing decomposed granite slopes, Alain updated the winery, building an underground granite insulated cellar to house his barrels, and focused on the production of Sciaccarellu and Vermentinu while teaching his son Gérard the ways of the vines and the cellar. With Gérard’s interest sparked and after studying oenology in Nîmes, Gérard returned to the domaine, taking over as winemaker in 2000, continuing the family tradition begun by his grandfather. The domaine is now 20 hectares in size, all vineyard work is done by hand, and as of 2008, all vineyard work is organic. Average vine age is over 30 years, yields are kept small, around 30 to 40 hl/ha, and under 7,000 cases are produced a year. In the cellar, only native yeast is used during vinification, which occurs in stainless steel tanks. The wine is aged in, or in a combination of, stainless steel tanks, barrique, 600L demi-muids, and concrete eggs on the lees without bâtonnage. The wines are never fined. A light filtration may occur depending on the vintage.