2023 Abbatucci Faustine Rosé, Corsica

Abbatucci’s wines are out of this world.

Olivier Poussier, World’s Best Sommelier 2000

100% Sciaccarellu (a.k.a. Sciaccarello). Also known as Mammolo in Chianti, where it is valued for floral aromatics. Grapes are hand harvested into small caskets to avoid damage, crushed and destemmed then macerated on skins for 12 hours before pressing. Cool-fermented in stainless steel, and matured on lees for 6 months giving a very delicately coloured vibrant Rosé with intense aromatics of red fruits and stone fruit with citrus freshness.

Domaine Comte Abbatucci is the sole three star producer in Corsica in the 2025 edition of the well regarded Le Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France.

The estate extends over 100 ha of granite sandy slopes, located in the southern part of Corsica’s Taravo Valley. Among the estate’s 100 hectares, there are 18 ha of vines at about 100m above sea level, but you will also find sheep amongst fruit trees, vegetables and olive trees, all f which have all been farmed bio-dynamically since 2000.

The estate is one of the oldest vineyard plantations in Corsica and has been chosen to study and experiment the reproduction of ancient vine varieties. If it wasn’t for Antoine Abbatucci, most of the grapes now grown by his son, Jean-Charles, might well not exist. In the 1960s, local Corsican grapes were being rapidly replaced by international competitors. Antoine was charged with preserving these varieties and, using a hectare of land, created an ampelographic station and saved the fate of 18 varieties.            

When Jean-Charles took over in 2000, he began grafting these old varieties onto the existing vines and started to grow them biodynamically. Today, 14 of those varieties can be found at Domaine Abbatucci, and there are now around 21 hectares of vines. The estate produces around 1,500-3,000 bottles of each type of wine from these old heirloom varieties.

More recently the estate has been trialling the use of sea water sprayed on some of these vines instead of classic Bordelais mixture of copper and sulphur in order to have healthier soils without the build-up of copper and to reduce the use of sulphur. The wines are all bottled with minimal sulphur and all wines have the capacity to age in the medium to long term while remaining fresh, fine and elegant with remarkable clarity of fruit carried by refreshing acidity. These are wines of exceptional balance and vivacity.

Jean-Charles represents Corsica at the INAO (the governing body for French appellation rules) and fights for the reintroduction of forgotten local grape varieties. Currently, the INAO admits the use of local varieties for the Corse appellation, but most are limited to minority components in blends, or are not permitted as single variety bottlings. In response to this, Jean-Charles chose to stop producing any wine under the Corse appellation in 2012 and has since labelled all Abbatucci wines simply as Vin de France.