FRANK CORNELISSEN | Susucaru | 2020
nerello mascalese | nerello cappuccio | minella nera | alicante bouschet | uva francesa | minella bianca

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Today we are going to review a very intriguing wine from Sicily – Susucaru 2020 by Azienda Agricola Frank Cornelissen. This wine is a blend of no fewer than 6 grape varieties, from which 85% is nerello mascalese (which is a late-ripening sicilian variety that grows mainly on the slopes of Mount Etna) and the remaining 15% is made up of nerello cappuccio, minella nera, alicante bouschet, uva francesa and minella bianca (which is a sicilian white grape variety). All the grapes are sourced from ungrafted old vines (50 to 80 years old) planted on the footsteps of Mount Etna in the Castiglione di Sicilia region (part of the Terre Siciliane IGP). What makes this wine intriguing is that it is made using only indigenous yeasts and without using exogenous added sulfites. In order to preserve the varietal characteristics of the grape varieties and the local hints of terroir, this wine has been aged only in neutral epoxy tanks. Another curiosity is the choice of the closure, as the wine was bottled with an Ardeaseal plastic cork. But enough theory, that said and without further ado, let’s take a look at the wine tasting results.
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Take a look at the tasting notes below and our detailed assessment of the wine:

//Visual
colour: pale garnet color
clarity: hazy garnet shades

//Olfactory
intensity: rich & herbal
fruit profile: red fruits
__red fruits: redcurrant | wolfberry | cranberry | red apple
fruit character: ripe

//Flavor
non fruit: herbal | savory | earthy
__herbal: wormwood | fennel | white pepper | dried herbs | asparagus | sage
__savory: iron | veal | leather | capocollo
__earthy: clay | loam | marl | compost | dust
primary layer: herbaceous

//Palate
sweetness: dry
acidity: high
alcohol: high
tannin: medium+
__grip: green
balance: fair
__dominant: alcohol
body: supple | medium

//Taste
fruit profile: red fruits
fruit character: ripe
non fruit: spice & herbs
finish: medium-
aftertaste: seedy-green

//Scoring
FRANK CORNELISSEN | Susucaru | 2020
variety: nerello mascalese | nerello cappuccio | minella nera | alicante bouschet | uva francesa | minella bianca
country: Italy
region: Sicilia | Terre Siciliane
rating: 91.2

//Conclusion
maturity: developing | drink now or within the year
verdict: fine | highly recommended
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This is definitely a fine wine of Italy and, with a total of 91.2 points scored, this wine is right there, among the best wines we’ve rated so far. Check our complete database on the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines that we have tasted and reviewed or go to the about us page and find out more about our exquisite rating system.

Verdict: this is a quite angular, austere and coarse wine blend that tastes green, crisp and rough – a wine that is still developing, thus one that requires another 3 to 6 months of bottle ageing in order to settle down and round up its sharp corners. It displays exuberant acidity, green and coarse tannins and an overwhelming touch of alcoholic warmth that is showing through on the mouthfeel, which leads to a seedy-green aftertaste. On the nose the wine a mixture of ripe red fruits and some very nuanced herbal notes in the foreground, supported by a subtle, spicy-earthy background. All in all, this is a supple but off-balanced wine with well preserved varietal characteristics and a terroir-driven, herbaceous delicacy – a wine that in its current state lacks any form of harmony or finesse on the palate. Judging by the wine’s structure, our recommendation is to drink it sooner rather than later, as we firmly believe that it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late, and this one here does not stand up as an age-worthy sample, rather it is a ‘drink now‘ kind of a wine, meant to be consumed young and fresh. Cheers!

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