Sun, scent and shores of riches

An army marches on its stomach, the French emperor and brilliant military tactician Napolean Bonaparte, born in Corsica in 1769, is supposed to have said. So, it should come as no surprise that Corsica also has a particularly rich food heritage - one it hopes to exploit in a new campaign for the 21st Century to conquer the British.

For anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful island, it is the verdant mountainous regions, with their tempting cool clear mountain streams that remain in the mind's eye as well as the sun and blue sea.

What also sets Corsica apart is the maquis: a shrubbery blanket containing a mixture of fragrant vegetation - herbs such as laurel, rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, lavender and myrtle, which cover more than half the island.

It is precisely these aromatic herbs - together with chestnuts, whose trees cover the island - that are used to enhance its cheeses, preserves, confectionery and charcuterie; wines, beers, liqueurs and mineral-enriched mountain spring bottle waters. And as tourism to Corsica grows, its astute small food manufacturers have not been slow to recognise the business opportunities for exporting those memories of the 'scented isle' to an increasingly well-travelled UK population.

Corsicans are a very proud race who, while not all still fighting for independence from France as some do, are united in their fierce passion about their glorious island home. It is worth remembering that this island of around 275,000 inhabitants in an area of 8,762 square kilometres still suffers a relatively sparse density of population as a direct result of the many thousands of its young soldiers that perished in the mud-soaked trenches and misery of the First World War.

New Corsican conquest

Today, Corsica's business community recognises that to move ahead the island needs to make use of its many riches - not least in diverse artisanal foods that differentiate its cuisine from other French food and drink.

Numerous small food producers are looking for markets outside the island, including the many independent UK retail outlets.

To explore export opportunities, the chambers of commerce of island capital Ajaccio in the west and Bastia in the north east invited a group of distributors, retailers and food journalists over from the UK last June to savour the island's delights. Most were not disappointed with what they saw, smelt and tasted.

Take the Charcuterie San Mighele, for example, located in the mountains at Murato in north west Corsica. This company produces hams, including prosciutto, lonzu, coppa and sausages, which are lightly smoked using wood from chestnut trees, before being matured for 30 months. Daniel Mortimer, proprietor of London delicatessen Mortimer & Bennett, based in Chiswick, glowingly said of the Charcuterie San Mighele: "It is probably the best charcuterie in Europe."

In addition to a day spent meeting suppliers at a mini exhibition organised in Bastia, the trade group had the opportunity to visit producers across the island and see the manufacturers' operations for making products as diverse as beers and liqueurs, wine and bottled water, confectionery and biscuits. There was also the chance to see the cornucopia on offer at specialist food store Corsica Gastronomia in Porticcio, near Ajaccio. Corsica Gastronomia makes its money by selling food and drink to locals and tourists.

Beers, wines and liqueurs

Although Corsica is probably better known for its wines, the Brasserie Pietra, at Casatorra south of Bastia, is an independent family-run speciality brewery, producing traditional beers - including the novel chestnut-flavoured Pietra beer, which is already available in the UK through Waitrose stores. It also brews the unfiltered Colomba beer, which is flavoured with local herbs, and makes Serena lager, which is consumed entirely in Corsica. The brewery makes around 40,000 hectolitres of beer a year, using its own spring water. It has a turnover of around £7.6M.

Pietra's president Dominique Sialelli says: "The UK market is opening up to new beers." This year it has also started exporting to the US and Japan, he adds.

Another company that makes a virtue of Corsican herbs in its products is Cap Corse Mattei, based at Borgo south of Bastia. The firm can trace its origins back to 1872 when it was established by another Napolean - one Louis Napolean Mattei. The company takes its name from the original product, Cap Corse, created by its founder. Cap Corse is a wine-based aperitif, which uses a quinine-containing cinchona base.

Over the years, the company has expanded into the production of a variety of other liqueurs made from traditional Corsican fruits and plants, including citron, myrtle and the liqueur of sweet chestnuts. It now produces around 200,000 bottles of Cap Corse a year and 50,000 bottles of other liqueurs.

While little of the company's production currently goes for export, this is something Cap Corse Mattei's chairman Jacques Yves Bonavita plans to change. "I see potential for Britain," says Bonavita, who also sees opportunities among younger consumers. Bonavita suggests Cap Corse would work well as the basis for a mixed drink cocktail rather than the way it is traditionally drunk in Corsica: neat with ice. "We are working on mixed recipes - in a tall glass with lemon juice and soda water," he adds. "We are also working on the idea of premixed drinks."

Also in Borgo, quite near to Cap Corse Mattei, is Domaine Uval. This company is a co-operative owned by 60 winegrowers who harvest around 1,300ha of vineyards, mostly along the east side of the island. It was founded in 1975 and now bottles about 100,000 hectolitres of wine a year from two winery locations - la Maran Cellar and the Mont Saint-Jean Cellar. In total, it produces 25% of Corsica's total wine output and exports over half, mainly to northern Europe and North America.

Domaine Uval produces white (dry, sweet and sparkling), red and rosé wines, using different grape varieties - including several Corsican types, such as Niellucciu (Sangiovese), Vermentinu (Malvoisie) and Sciaccarellu, which are unlikely to be known to the non-connoisseur UK wine drinker. However, the company also produces from Chardonnay, Cabernet-Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir grape varieties. Around 30% of all vines are Corsican grape varieties, while 40% use the more common varieties from mainland France. 15% of output comes from developing grape varieties, such as the small grape-berry Muscat grown in Corsica.

Located high up the Corsican mountains within a nature reserve near the village of Piedicroce, lies Eaux d'Orezza, which extracts naturally sparkling spring water (the only source in the Mediterranean, the company claims) from deep below the ground. Orezza's modern production facilities are housed within a 150-year-old building. Its water is also naturally very rich in iron (35mg/l) and other minerals, but low in sodium.

The plant processes the sparkling water to produce 9M bottles a year. Orezza also produces waters mildly flavoured with mint, grapefruit and citron. Its products are sold through specialist outlets in the UK, including Mortimer & Bennett.

Confectionery

As with the other artisan producers, Corsica's confectionery manufacturers also make a virtue of locally available ingredients. The Confiserie Saint Sylvestre, set up in 1985 at Soveria near Corte in the centre of the island, for instance, specialises in products made from local fruits.

Its gourmet confectionery includes nougat and crystallised and candied fruits, which all come in a variety of flavours. The company also makes toffee from salted butter, which is flavoured with almonds, coffee and chocolate. And it is just about to launch a range of chocolate products aimed specifically at patissiers and chocolate makers, including leading restaurants and hotels in Paris and elsewhere. It is also working on a new nougat cream, with ingredients such as pistachio, for use in ice cream, chocolates, cakes and macaroons - a big growth area in France, apparently.

As well as selling to outlets within Corsica and France, Confiserie Saint Sylvestre also exports products to the UK. Customers include London chocolatier L'Artisan du Chocolat, based in Lower Sloane Street, and British Airways. The firm also claims to be in discussion with London's Rococo Chocolates.

Confiserie Saint Sylvestre has just transferred into brand new production facilities, which involved an investment of around £840,000 at the small factory. The new facilities have a capacity to produce 2t/week of candied fruit and have been specifically designed to meet the highest levels of hygiene.

Baker Biscuiterie d'Afa near Ajaccio is another company that has expanded to meet growing demand for its products, supplying customers across Corsica and mainland France. It lays claim to very humble origins, having started business in the family garage of two French brothers in 1983 producing 50kg of a type of almond shortbread called canistrelli to their mother's recipe.

Today Biscuiterie d'Afa still stresses its artisanal approach, but with more sophisticated production operations making around 210t of biscuits a year. Products range from traditional canistrelli, flavoured with anise, clementine, chestnut, white wine or almonds; Bicuttini, which are small crunchy Corsican biscuits; and Canistrons, which are flavoured with anise or sultanas. Although exports do not feature highly at present, the firm hopes to expand into the US and northern Europe, including the UK.

For new product developers looking for new ways of titillating the taste buds of adventurous UK consumers, a touch of the herb-scented maquis​ might just hit the spot. FM