Frank Cornelissen MunJebel Rosso PA 2017

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The MunJebel Rosso PA 2016 is a 100% Nerello Mascalese from 60+-year-old vines situated at 640 m elevation from the Porcaria cru. It has wonderful elegant and fresh aromas of wild cherry, ripe plum, red currant, sweet spice, smoke, and wildflowers. On the palate, this displays remarkable overall balance and finesse with excellent purity of fruit and gorgeous firm, yet beautifully polished tannins. The finish is long and precise as it leaves a lasting impression. Frank began collecting wines with his father, and the first wines he bought were a mixed case of 1972 Domaine de la Romanée Conti. Despite the cost, he was hooked. Since then ‘wine has never left me’, he says. Later, he became a wine agent, and talking regularly with winemakers he became interested in the rather philosophical question of what wine actually is. Over 20 years of tasting, he found that he liked wines that were an expression of culture, that is more evolved, and which express the soil more than the fruit. He decided that he wanted wines with a more natural approach and that he’d like to make wines without any treatments in the vineyard, winemaking or bottling. The name Susucaru comes from a Sicilian expression meaning “they stole it” which is what Frank’s crew shouted when they realized most of the grapes from their first vintage had vanished. The farm and vineyards are located in Sicily, in the Northern Valley of the active volcano Etna. Although Etna has a tradition in the high-density plantation of vines, they search to reduce monoculture and have interplanted various local fruit varieties and keep bees to regain a complex ecosystem. The new vineyards are planted without grafts, using a selection of their original, ungrafted vines. Buckwheat is used for rebalancing soils low on organic material without recourse to industrial compost, especially important when preparing the land for a new vineyard plantation. They avoid soil-tilling as much as possible, although this depends on the vintage and the quantity of water over the winter (recovering of the vines after the production cycle). Franks goal is to avoid all treatments whatsoever in the vineyard, orchard and surroundings, in which they succeeded even in difficult vintages such as 2004 and 2005. Unfortunately, there will always be the vintages where treatments with copper sulphate and sulphur are necessary to avoid vines from dying like 2013 and 2015.

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