2021 Munjebel Rosso PA

Coming from Feudo di Mezzo’s highest part of Porcaria, the 2021 MunJebel Rosso PA is a youthful red wine, expressing almost marine-like savory notes on the nose, with black raspberries, candied purple wildflowers, and sweet tannins. Medium-bodied, its broad-shouldered tannins have a sneaky grip that emerges from the wine's otherwise more initially approachable and balanced texture. On the finish, it shows off its aging potential and will almost certainly be worth holding on to for several years prior to opening. Drink 2026-2056. This was my first visit to the cellar of Frank Cornelissen, located in the northern valley of Etna, and I am already looking forward to my next visit. In this cellar, there’s no oak, and everything is aged in fiberglass tanks. It doesn’t take long to realize the numerous pitfalls imitators might face in trying to mimic this winemaking style. While on paper the winemaking might sound hands-off or cavalier, nothing could be further from the truth. Frank Cornelissen may very well be one of the most exacting and hardest-working winemakers I have met to date. He has thought everything through, and nothing is off-limits to analyze, improve on, and correct. There’s more to be said about all this, but for the time being, I’ll just say that my expectations were blown out of the water by these wines, which have a precision and detail that raises the bar both intellectually and hedonistically. Now isn’t that what great wines should be all about?