Frank Cornelissen Susucaru Rosso 2024

Cellar for up to 8 years. No need to decant before serving.

Belgian born winemaker Frank Cornelissen is making waves in the Sicilian wine scene for his characterful natural wines. Frank started out collecting wines with his father and later became a wine agent, tasting thousands of wines over the course of his career. One day in a restaurant in Sicily he tasted a wine from Mount Etna and immediately drove to the winery to see it for himself.

Impressed by what he saw, Frank soon rented some vineyards on Etna and began making his own wines in some abandoned sheds, and in 2001 he bought an old ungrafted vineyard planted with 50-80 year old Nerello Mascalese. His Susucaru Rosso cuvee is a field blend made primarily from Nerello Mascalese along with Minella Nera, Alicante, Bouschet and Minella Bianco.

Once in the winery the fruit is fermented with wild yeasts on the skins for 10 days which gives the wine its light red hue. Frank doesn’t add any sulphites to the wine and very lightly filters them prior to bottling. The result is a unique and distinctive natural wine that’s layered with aromatic bright red berry fruit, dried herbs, white pepper, and a streak of mouthwatering acidity on the finish.