"Having had to pinch myself"
-A Small Island Joins the Big Boys
2010 Abbatucci:
Blanc Général de la Révolution
& Rouge Ministre Impérial MAGNUMS
Corsica Arrives
"Collectively, Abbatucci’s wines will stretch your palate, your imagination, and even your notions about what wine is or can be." -David Schildknecht
Last week, we sent an offering on Abbatucci's Ministre Rouge and Général Blanc, two epic Corsican wines that David Schildknecht put on the world stage, deservedly so.
Schildknecht placed two of Abbatucci's wines at the very top of all the wines that he reviewed - right there with the best from Keller, Dönnhoff and Schäfer-Fröhlich.
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They are utterly fascinating, eye-opening wines that seem to reveal another layer and dimension with each smell and taste. They have complexity to spare - there's really nothing out there like them.
Today, only to people who have supported the wines, we're offering super-rare magnums of Ministre Rouge and Général Blanc at $187.95 per magnum (there's no upcharge on the mags.)
When we say that they are limited, we mean it - only around 125 cases of Général and 160 cases of Ministre are produced, so mags are very, very rare.
If you need a refresher, please refer to last week's offer, but I should say here that these are singular, fascinating wines. Schildknect's notes capture their uniqueness and importance wonderfully: For Général Blanc, he writes, it "is among the handful of most profoundly (not to mention improbably) beautiful and delicious white wines that I’ve tasted in the past several years."
For the Ministre Rouge, he writes, "utterly unlike any other red of my experience.... there is a remarkable alliance of textural creaminess with refreshment and levity...leading to a kaleidoscopically interactive, saliva-inducingly saline, uncannily energetic, and virtually endless finish"
These are extremely limited. Please give us your ideal order and we'll try our best.
To order, reply to this email or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits
Général de la Révolution Blanc Magnum
David Schildknecht: "Just to get this out of the way up front, Abbatucci’s 2010 Cuvee Collection Blanc General de la Revolution Jean-Charles Abbatucci – his only white in this series from ancient cepages that I’ve tasted (but then on two disparate occasions, having had to pinch myself the first time) is among the handful of most profoundly (not to mention improbably) beautiful and delicious white wines that I’ve tasted in the past several years. Vinified in older demi-muids – whereas most wines from Domaine Abbatucci, regardless of color, are rendered in tank – it’s sourced (for the record) from Carcajolu Biancu; Paga Debbiti; and diminishing shares – ranging from 15-5% – of Riminese; Rossola Brandica, and Vermentinu. If you’re inclined to shake your head when my ilk go on about sticking one’s nose in a glass and smelling the scrubby, herbal, and floral ambience in which the wine grew and perhaps even the bracing mountain air itself (all of which would in Corsica fall under the term maquis), this wine might make a believer of you. Amid a persistent effusion of thyme, gorse, tarragon, mint, lavender, wild chrysanthemum and ineffable others comes an uncannily buoyant wave of creamy yet refreshing essence of raw almond and pine nuts in a melon and citrus matrix. The effect is cooling and soothing, yet refreshing and (in more than one sense of that word) uplifting, with a finish whose mesmerizing flavor interplay is almost ceaseless. The first edition of this roughly 1,500-bottle cuvee came in 2006. So even if I had experience from its inception, I doubt I would be positioned to predict longer-term bottle evolution. But I’m pretty confident that evolution will be positive. (Since this wine is legally forbidden from advertising its vintage, you’ll need to verify that from the first two digits that appear in tiny print on the label after the capital letter "L." The additional numerals identify the specific lot number, but needless to say there is but a single bottling of this rarity.)
Ministre Impérial Rouge Magnum
David Schildknecht: "Abbatucci’s 2010 Cuvee Collection Rouge: Ministre Imperial Jacques-Pierre-Charles Abbatucci – which receives minimal elevage in older demi-muids – is utterly unlike any other red of my experience (and thus far it’s the sole red wine in his series from ancient cepages that I’ve tasted). Geeks among us please note that this mind-bending cuvee comprises – in diminishing proportions of 22-8% each – Sciacarellu, Niellucciu, Carcajou-Neru, Montaneccia, Morescono, Morescola, and (hey, I recognize this one) Aleatico. An eerily lovely evocation of herbal and effusively-flowering scrub akin to that of the corresponding white, General de la Revolution soars from the glass accompanied by sweetly ripe, high-toned evocations of fresh and distilled cherry and strawberry. Here too – but even more strikingly given that the wine’s red – there is a remarkable alliance of textural creaminess with refreshment and levity, harboring only the faintest and then most mouthwateringly tea-like impression of tannin. Mint, tarragon, tonka nut, and pronounced piquant evocations of cherry pit and almond, accent and set into relief a luscious, polished, yet palate-stimulating torrent of fresh strawberry, cherry, and blood orange whose sense of sweetness would ordinarily only be approached in a wine of over-ripe flavors. But here the impression is entirely fresh-fruited, juicy, and buoyant, leading to a kaleidoscopically interactive, saliva-inducingly saline, uncannily energetic, and virtually endless finish. I lack any experience to speculate on the maturation of this ca. 2,000-bottle cuvee (first rendered in 2007). Methinks, though, that many of us will count ourselves lucky to be able to witness that evolution. (To verify vintage, consult the first two digits that appear in tiny print on the back label immediately after the capital "L.")"