Cornelissen Susucaru

The latest from Mt. Etna's Mad Scientist Frank Cornelissen. Don't miss the next offer. Get on the list now.

Susucaru 3

Dear Friends,

The first time I drove to the doorstep of Mt Etna (Sicily), the song Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider was playing on my beat up Cinquecento. Casting aside how bizarre it was to hear a Canadian anthem blaring on a mono Italian radio station, little did I know how apropos that song would be regarding the rest of my weekend spent on the edge of reason...

Fast forward nearly a decade and Frank Cornelissen has become famous. He is regarded as the new-movement leader of the artisanal/hyper BIO movement in Italy with countless (obsessive?) wannabe’s throughout Europe. His eccentric take on Nerello Mascalese has influenced and inspired so many winemakers around the world that I’ve lost count...all for wine that remains as controversial as it was the first time I tasted it.

Which brings us to the first release of the year: Susucaru 3 – a rosato (rosé) from the 2010 vintage that is as wise and studied as any wine Frank has yet made. It’s an example that has become a symbol of freedom to the wine-world, held up as a trophy of sorts for the wine geek faithful the way a cult Cabernet or First Growth is to big-money collectors.

The Susucaru 3 is alive in more ways than one and it takes the patience of an experimentalist to allow what most consider to be flaws to shine so brightly. Full of gunk, sediment and cloudy other – bottled without a capsule and a mere stopper pushed into the neck, this is where wine is headed....like it or not. If Steiner had a favorite bubble bath, it would be the Susucaru although the 2010 vintage is the least controversial example yet – it is actually a wine you can drink and enjoy with your evening meal.

From a lightly red colored free-run field blend of indigenous Etna varietals, those of you new to the experience will be floored with the first whiff (literally, you may fall to the floor). Damask rose sprinkled over the essence of clove-studded orange rind - a nice dose of holiday ham is thrown in for good measure and the naturally viscous mouthfeel is something to behold. There is so much going on here that descriptors really cannot wrap their words around the experience. With air, a tawny quality emerges on the back end giving further intrigue to a wine that hardly needs additional help. As the evening progresses, the robust acidity and textural presence unfolds and act like magnets to your sense of curiosity.

Only Frank Cornelissen could produce something like this and walk away the heavyweight champion in the form of a welterweight. A wine that triggers the imagination and never apologizes for dreaming the day away – it begs us to dig just a bit deeper, to find a place where preconception is removed from the vocabulary. It is a wine that takes winemaking “flaws” to a new level and makes them integral and desirable elements of the whole. Sterile wine people or those that refuse to be challenged by anything but the accepted norm should stay away – why bother being exposed to anything new when the status quo is so much easier?

Iconoclastic? Idiosyncratic?

Yes, but never bombastic or irresponsible

Please note: this wine should be tasted from the first cork-pull to the last sip – do not decant or you will miss a good dose of the fireworks as it evolves. To fully appreciate Susucaru, I would gather a group of friends together and prepare them for a different experience - if for no other reason than to realize the dual meaning of the word “individual” housed in the same bottle. In addition, you must serve this wine ice cold to start and allow the wine to warm in the glass as you go along (to activate the living nature of its contents). Do not serve this wine at room temperature or much of the magic will be lost.

Here is the community link for a broader opinion – it’s in regard to last year’s Susucaru 2 (my favorite is the “Prison Wine – like jungle punch fermented in a toilet bowl” that has to be one of the TN’s of the year so far): http://bit.ly/ks4LRe

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as the future of wine realized in the here and now - a mini-marvel of cloudy proportions at the top of the natural wine hierarchy.

This parcel is directly from the cellars of Frank Cornelissen – it has the most expensive transport costs of any parcel we bring to you due to circuitous shipping and nonsensical hoops we must go through to insure cold temperature movement from Frank’s door to ours (including pharmaceutical transport from Sicily to mainland Italy – it’s the only temperature controlled transport available from Etna).

Thank you,

Jon Rimmerman

Garagiste

Seattle, WA