Frank Cornelissen — Mount Etna, Sicily
Frank Cornelissen — Mount Etna, Sicily
Frank Cornelissen left Belgium, moved to the slopes of an active volcano in Sicily, and decided to make wine without doing much of anything. No added sulphur, no temperature control, no safety net. Just Nerello Mascalese, volcanic soil, altitude, and time.
The story sounds like a provocation. The wines — Magma, Munjebel, the entire Cornelissen catalogue — suggest something more serious: a sustained inquiry into what happens when you stop interfering.
Etna is its own sensory universe. The soil is black and mineral, composed of millennia of volcanic activity. The altitude creates temperature swings that no coastal region can replicate. The vines — many of them pre-phylloxera, ungrafted, ancient — produce grapes that carry the character of that specific place with an intensity that technically produced wines rarely achieve.
Cornelissen's journey is about radical simplicity. Not simplicity as a style, but simplicity as a philosophical commitment: the belief that the most honest thing a winemaker can do is get out of the way. His critics argue the resulting wines are unstable, too variable, too hard to pin down. His supporters argue that this is exactly the point.
The Léger frame applied to Cornelissen: what does it mean to leave a life behind to make something uncompromising? What does terroir mean when the terroir is volcanic, literally alive beneath you? And what is the relationship between radical simplicity in winemaking and radical simplicity in any creative practice?
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id. Sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu. Placerat orci nulla pellentesque dignissim enim sit amet venenatis urna.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id. Sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu. Placerat orci nulla pellentesque dignissim enim sit amet venenatis urna.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id. Sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Aliquam ut porttitor leo a diam sollicitudin tempor id. Sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu. Placerat orci nulla pellentesque dignissim enim sit amet venenatis urna.
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024
Fringed jacquard cardigan
The Léger Guide - June 3, 2024