2025 Domaine de Marquiliani-Anne Amalric, Rosé Gris de Marquiliani, Vin de Corse, France.
One of my favorite Rosé wines for more than 10 years, is Anne Amalric’s Domaine de Marquiliani from Corsica, made from the native Sciaccarellu grape, grown on granite and schist soils, with its whisper pale hue and crisp mineral toned palate this an ultra charming wine. This Rosé, which was decanted off the skins, with the juice seeing a 72 hour cold soak and the clear juice was then pulled from the vat and fermented in stainless steel with no malo-lactic allowed and bottled quickly to preserve an intense thrill of freshness and crystalline focus. As in the past examples, this Gris de Marquiliani gives bright citrus, tart white cherry, peach/melon flesh and rosewater, along with delicate flinty stones and a fine textural grace. This is as mentioned in prior reviews, perfect as it gets for dry Rosé. The sea breezes and constant ventilation, as the winery notes, provides the perfect situation between mountains and sea, and the rocky, well-draining soils help the grapes retain their acidity and allow for a slow, even ripening on the vine. The chilled air currents from nearby Monte Renosu—one of Corsica’s highest peaks at 7,716 feet—make this one of the cooler sites on the island’s east coast. The soils in Aghione, according to the winery, are a mix of alluvial debris composed primarily of the mentioned schist and granite, along with silt that has descended from the mountains over the last tens of thousands of years, all of which makes for that striking stony character and mineral intensity. For the Rosé, Vin Gris de Marquiliani, as noted above, Amalric uses Sciaccarellu, a grape thought to have been brought here from Tuscany by the Etruscans, in ancient times, and one that adds a unique distinction.
Rosé, again as I’ve said before, is a huge category these days and with so much mediocre stuff out there, places like Corsica are gold mines for superior examples, rivaling Provence, with Comte Abbatucci, Clos Canarelli and Domaine de Marquiliani being especially wines not to miss, rivaling any dry pink wine made anywhere in the world. Importer Kermit Lynch, who’s properties on Corsica are some of the islands greatest estates, says the the Amalric family has farmed Domaine de Marquiliani, located in the town of Aghione, not far from the old Roman capital of Corsica, Aleria, on the eastern coast of the island, since the 1950s, nearly twenty years after the two hundred-year-old domaine was destroyed in a fire and abandoned. The Amalrics, led by first Daniel and now Anne, bought the property and replanted the vineyards and gained notoriety for the quality of the wines. Daniel was the first to plant Niellucciu (Sangiovese) and Syrah on this side of the island. In 1995, he was joined by his daughter, Anne, an agricultural chemist who had returned from mainland France to take her place at the family farm. Initially, Anne put her energy into planting olive and almond trees, which huge success, especially with the olive oil that Kermit Lynch says is almost as outstanding as the wines here. Continuing, Lynch repeats, that Anne’s determination has not been in vain, as Domaine de Marquiliani’s olive oils, made from local olive varieties, are widely regarded as the best in Corsica and maybe beyond. Anne, after that, then turned her focus back to the vineyards, replanting much of the land to Sciaccarellu, as known by its Tuscan name Mammolo, to focus the production on this brilliant Rosé, which along with Clos Cibonne and Domaine Tempier, is always a must have Summer wine, though great anytime of year.
($32 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive