Fortified with local spirit, Arena’s 2009 Muscat du Cap Corse is pungently redolent of sage, orange blossom, and candied lemon rind. Subtly oil and creamy, its piquancy almost manages to be a match for its sheer sweetness, and it finishes – in its confectionary, honeyed, bittersweet way – with far greater persistence than most French wines of its genre.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