This looks like a gag. More corsican Jean-Charles Abbatucci, who leads the vineyard of the name of this family history, based in Casalabriva, about twenty miles south of Ajaccio, and it must be hard to find. Yet, the winemaker of 55 years, can not in any way make reference to his island on the labels of its bottles. “I can’t sign up Corsica or put an image recalling the region, just “Jean-Charles Abbatucci, winemaker at Casalabriva”, because that is the address. I have to apply for a waiver of FranceAgriMer to be able to indicate the vintage year and the name of a grape variety “, says the man with the clear eyes and the smile endorsement.
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the First and only winemaker on the island of Beauty to be entered to the Academy of the wines of France – the forty members of the elite of the wine world are the academics-for-life – Jean-Charles Abbatucci produces wine… of France. Why ? It is under this name that are listed number of magnificent nectars, in all wine-growing regions, when the winemakers use grape varieties old or not falling within the framework, strict, appellation of controlled origin (AOC). “More and more areas produce wines high-end, piecemeal, but in wine of France. They choose a different path than the AOC, and this is also true for Corsica, ” explains Jean-Charles Abbatucci. The winemaker, at the head of this area of 20 hectares since 1992, passed in biodynamics in 2000, has left the appellation vin de Corse in 2011. Without declaring war to the INAO, the national Institute that administers appellations, and of which he was a member of the regional committee for six years. “The designations have a role to play, they allow you to frame things, people, but there must be more openness, it is necessary to go to a questioning, deep, advance, Jean-Charles. At one point, I asked myself what’s the good of staying in this system. “
” I’m the only winemaker to use only these corsican grape varieties. “
The grower has chosen the cause of the vines… the corsicans. He has ten-eight in his vineyards which offer themselves to the sun, at the heart of the Taravo valley. Let us look, in red, the aléatico, the morescono or the minustello, and, white, the barbarossa or even the paga debiti (” pay the debts “), variety-performance-important as its name indicates. “I’m the only winemaker to use only these corsican grape varieties, I have practiced a lot of double grafting on the carignans, grenaches that were present in the vineyards of the area before. “Traditional grape varieties of the south of France that Jean-Charles Abbatucci, called the” foreign legion “.
So, why not give the honor of these grapes islanders, that his father, who has chaired the chamber of agriculture in Corsica, had planted ? “I inherited these eighteen varieties of the collection ampélographique that two researchers had conducted at the request of my father. And I’ve given the flavor of the day “, sets out simply. The result is stunning. Its Faustina, in three colors, are delicate and complex. And his three cuvées top of the range, each bearing the name of an illustrious ancestor Abbatucci, are worthy of the greatest wines : the General of the Revolution, a white base of vermentino, rossola brandinca, riminese, carcajolo bianco, biancone and paga debiti ; the Diplomat of the Empire, the other white-based vermentino, brustiano, bianco gentile, genovese, rossola bianca ; and a red, just majestic, the Minister imperial, freshly made with the grape varieties sciaccarello, nielluccio, morescola, morescono, montanaccia, carcajolo nero and aléatico. Corsican wine, or wine of France, no matter, as professed by Jean-Charles Abbatucci, ” people are interested in what is in the bottle “.
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