Clos Fornelli

Tallone — Corsica

Certified Organic

Josée Vanucci and her husband, Fabrice Couloumère, left fast tracked careers in engineering and business in 2005 in order to return to Josée’s roots and take over her familial vineyard in eastern Corsica. Her grandparents only had a few rows of vines. Her father spent the 1960’s propagating indigenous Corsican varieties in spite of myriad disincentives from the government. Armed with a diploma in agricultural engineering, motivated by her childhood memories and a deep desire to return to her origins and carry her heritage forward, Josée and Fabrice began to cultivate and vinify her family vineyard under their own label. 

Today the domaine has 35 ha of organically certified vines in Tallone, which is halfway between Northern and Southern Corsica, on the lesser known Eastern side of the island. Here the vines benefit from both mountain and coastal influences. The vineyards are situated on the plains above the terraces of the Bravone River where the deep, infertile soils are composed of clay and alluvial, with some slate from erosion of the mountains. Nights here are much cooler than those of the more well-known Ajaccio region on the western side of the island — the sharp rise of the Castagniccia mountains shortens sun exposure, creating a cooler Mediterranean microclimate, ultimately helping preserve freshness and aromatics in Josée’s wines.

Josée remains focused on growing indigenous varieties, and in addition to preserving her father’s old Sciaccarellu vines (some of the oldest in the region), as well as Vermentinu and Niellucciu, she also grows lesser known Corsican varieties such as Biancu Gentile, Genovese, and Minustellu. Josée aims for lower yields and practices green harvesting as well as leaf stripping to help promote ripening and aeration. This combination of low yields and ripe grapes are key factors in bringing out the terroir.

The winery itself is a converted hangar, equipped with a pneumatic press, and a variety of aging vessels (stainless steel, foudre, and concrete egg) allowing for Josée and Fabrice to experiment. The focus is bringing in fruit that is as healthy as possible, minimizing sulfur use, fermenting with native yeasts and vinifying and aging each variety and parcel separately. 

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