Spirit Aléria
Domaine Mavela
When Corsican know-how rhymes with exception
Located in the heart of the Corsican eastern plain of Aléria, the distillery Mavela has been crafting premium spirits for over thirty years.
Stefanu and Jean-Claude Venturini.
In the 80s, Jean-Claude Venturini, driven by the spirit of the Riacquistu*, had the idea to promote local fruits turning them into exceptional eaux-de-vie and liqueurs. At the dawn of the 21st century, the plum brandies, then the grape one, get their first gold medals at the Paris International Agricultural Show.
Jean-Claude decides then to develop the House and to distil the main fruits of the island: myrtle, citron and chestnut. Pear and raspberry will follow. All spirits are made from fruits of the domain and those brought by local arboriculturists. The quality requirement wants that the harvests, as well as the picking of wild berries in the maquis, are manual, as the peeling, the setting in maceration and the filtering. The distillation period lasts all year and is based on the seasons.
In 2000, he dashes with Dominique Sialelli, CEO of the brewery Pietra, into the creation of the first Corsican whiskey, fully elaborated on the island. Their expertise and the assets of the two companies offer them the opportunity to conceive an original product that stand out completely.
After much thought and many trips in Scotland and the USA, the process is set up. They use the malts from Pietra, brewed and fermented in Furiani, and distil them into Mavela’s still Holstein. The whisky will then age for a long time in oak barrels that have contained Muscat of Patrimoniu from the Domain Gentile. To finish, the beverage will be softened with spring water from the Pass St Georges. The whisky P&M was born. It will come in a variety of three products: Blend, Superior Blend and Single Malt.
The first bottling takes place in December 2004, but it is in 2007, during the Whisky Live fair in Paris, that he gets the recognition with its entry into the Jim Murray's famous world bible which assigns a score of respectively 89 out of 100 for the Blend and 91 out of 100 for the Single Malt.
Today, it is Stefanu Venturini, the eldest son whom his father passed on his know-how, who distils brilliantly. Besides its whiskies, the Domain Mavela proposes three collections. The
1755 range, the most widespread on the island, is the flagship of Mavela and Corsica over the world. Its name is a tribute to Pasquale Paoli, who in 1755 proclaimed the independence of Corsica and provided a constitution, making of the island the first democracy of modern type in Europe.
The range Boutique, thanks to a rigorous selection of the fruits, the respect for the seasons and the care brought to distillation, is a benchmark for exceptional alcohols.
The range Prestige is obtained through the exclusive use of the core distillates racked between 55° and 50° degrees then refined with spring water from the Pass Saint Georges. Its high-end packaging in flasks of which some are manufactured in Crystal of Champagne, makes of Mavela’s eaux-de-vie rare products.
*Movement of a generation of young Corsican for the reappropriation of the History, the language, the artistic and cultural expressions, know-how. Re-creation of a kind of collective identity.)
Charlynne Zirah
Domaine Mavela
U Licettu - 20270 Aléria Tél: +33 (0)4 95 56 60 30
www.domaine-mavela.com
