Frank Cornelissen 'Susucaru Patos Bianco' 2022 Sicily, Italy

Grape: Catarratto Extra Lucido

Style: Medium bodied with a gentle grip from its ten day skin maceration. Notes of salted lemon, yellow peach, fennel pollen, and crushed volcanic rock. 

Details: Sourced from a friend’s vineyard called Vallone Gurra Belice in Menfi with a south exposure at fifty meters and vines over twenty years old rooted in volcanic soils. Harvested by hand. Grapes are left to macerate on the skins for ten days. Aged ten months in neutral tanks. Never fined and filtered gently. Minimal sulfur added depending on the needs of the vintage.

Story: Frank Cornelissen farms nineteen hectares high on Mount Etna and has been immersed in wine his entire life. As the son of a Belgian wine broker he grew up around cellars, bottles, and conversations about terroir long before he made his first wine in 2001 with less than half a hectare. Frank is known for his meticulous vineyard work and obsessive attention to detail in the cellar. His wines have evolved from the razor edged linear style of the early years to today’s deeper balance of fruit purity and dynamic minerality though the through line has always been the voice of Etna’s volcanic soils.