Clos Canarelli 'Alta Rocca' 2020

At the southern tip of Corsica just outside the town of Figari, Yves Canarelli is producing some of the island’s most revered wines. 

While his neighbours ripped up local grapes and planted international varieties in the 1990s, Yves painstakingly restored native Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu, and Vermentinu vineyards, as well as his family’s plot of 140-year-old pre-phylloxera vines.

Yves’ skilful biodynamic farming results in perfectly ripe, healthy fruit, which ferments slowly with native yeasts before maturation in barrels and amphorae. His wines have the perfumed aromatics, purity of fruit, and mineral clarity that are the hallmarks of Corsica’s best bottles.

Having garnered impressive scores from the major critics, Clos Canarelli’s mineral-and-spice-accented rosé has become a must-have for Mediterranean yacht-farers wanting to drink something with a touch more class than ubiquitous Provençal rosés.

Despite his rosé’s international fame, Yves’ stellar local reputation is built on his whites and reds. Made from Vermentinu, ‘Figari Blanc’ bursts with white peach and toasted almonds, while ‘Figari Rouge’ is a Burgundian-like expression of Niellucciu (Sangiovese), full of smoky black fruit and silky tannins.

From a single vineyard planted in 1997, the domaine’s flagship ‘Alta Rocca’ is aged in foudres for 18 months and offers crushed berries and exotic spices. Multi-layered and ageworthy, it is among the finest expressions of Sciaccarellu and – like all Canarelli’s wines – quintessentially Corsican.

Crushed berries, wild herbs, and silky tannins. Silky and elegant.