Franck Cornelissen

Franck Cornelissen is a Belgian who in 2001 chose to settle on the north slope of Etna when the area was still almost unknown to the wine world. Across his 24 hectares of old alberello-trained vines — many ungrafted, at over 900 metres above sea level — he works with a radically non-interventionist approach: no commercial yeasts, no additives, no added sulfur dioxide, and aging in neutral containers to preserve the pure expression of the volcanic soil.

Nerello Mascalese is the emblematic variety of his production. His flagship wine, Magma Rosso, comes from a single vineyard in Contrada Barbabecchi planted around 1910 and is produced only in exceptional vintages. Cornelissen describes Nerello as a variety halfway between Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo — with the tannic structure of the latter and the fruit of the former — and his entire research is aimed at letting the volcano speak.