Yves Leccia Ile de Rosé Ile de Beaute 2021

Summer is rosé season, no doubt. And we’re here for it. But this summer, we’re going to do rosé a different way. The cool, the interesting, the wildly delicious yet slightly weird way is what we’re going for, and that means picking rosés from little-known regions or practically unheard of grapes. This wine checks both of those boxes. And it’s GOOD, y’all. Mark my words, this over 50% off rosé is one you’ll crave every day, not just during the summer!

As the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean and Napoleon’s birthplace, Corsica is an idyllic paradise with clear blue skies and sunny days…and a winemaker’s paradise. Yves has had wine coursing through his veins since he was a child, as he used to help his father in the vines in the small village of Patrimonio, though the Leccia family has been making wine for generations. The Leccia name even means “oak,” though Yves doesn’t use oak in the vinification of his wines. Yves decided to make his own wines back in 2004, using the stellar terroir in his village of Patrimonio called E Croce, which is a top layer of chalk atop a bedrock of schist. That very specific terroir deeply expresses itself in Yves’ wines.

Yves Leccia’s wines have been called the “Rolls Royce” of Corsican wines. We haven’t had many wines from Corsica, but we agree with this assessment. Ile de Rosé is mineral-driven, crisp, and clean with some fennel and berry notes. It’s made with two grapes you may not have heard of before – 80% niellucciu and 20% sciaccarellu – two Italian grape varieties that are grown mostly in Corsica. They’re fruity, salty, and lightly herbaceous, which is what you’ll find in this wine. It’s perfection in a bottle and a perfect summer sipper that’s complex enough for heartier fare for those cooler nights as the seasons change. It’s under $15 and might we say, a beauty! We don’t like to tell you what to do, but we’re telling you that you HAVE to buy this wine. Missing out would be akin to a summer without sunshine. Buy as many as you can to prolong the summer as much as possible…we’re sure planning to!