Susucaru Wine: What Is It and How Did It Become So Popular?

Susucaru wine — never heard of it? Join the rest of us. At least until recently, this obscure wine from Sicily's Mount Etna wasn't on anybody's radar... until a rapper came along and gave it his highest proclamation. Action Bronson is a New York chef-turned-rapper who's also the star of a new show on Viceland called "F*ck That's Delicious."

"I am a wine tsunami. I am a natural disaster when it comes to natural wine."

Frank is a fierce proponent of "profound territorial wines."

Unlike other rappers who raise glasses of Dom Perignon or Cristal, Bronson is a true renaissance man who shows a strong preference for natural wines. In most of his episodes, he can be seen at some point waxing poetic about food and life with a glass of wine in hand. The episode in question features Bronson and his friend Meyhem Lauren dining at 10 William Street, a hip Italian restaurant in Sydney's Paddington. Bronson orders a bottle of Susucaru and declares, "You saw my face when they brought the Sususcaru out. I was like a little f*ckin' kid, like my mom just bought the NBA Jam Tournament Edition. I been waiting for this Susucaru all my life. I love this one."

"I been waiting for this Susucaru all my life. I love this one."

I saw the episode where Bronson delighted in drinking this wine, but I didn't think much of it until seeing a recent post on Wine Searcher, which reported how this previously unknown wine shot to the top 20 of its most-searched-for list, jumping ahead of popular names like Cos d'Estournel and Penfolds Grange. 

Photo credit: Vice

So what’s the deal with this wine? It’s made by Frank Cornelissen, a Belgian-born winemaker and certified anomaly in the wine world. A fierce supporter of natural wine, Cornelissen even considers biodynamics too interventionist for his taste.

His approach is radically hands-off. He farms roughly 64 acres on the slopes of Mount Etna, letting the vines grow as they please with minimal interference. No shortcuts. No forcing nature’s hand.

The vineyards are trained in gobelet, or bush-vine, style — a low-yielding, old-school system designed to handle heat and wind while keeping vines close to the earth. It’s similar to the Graupert method used by our friends at Meinklang, where structure is dictated by nature rather than trellis wire.

The result is fruit that reflects Etna in its rawest form, wild, volcanic, and completely unconcerned with convention.

"Our farming philosophy is based on our acceptance of the fact that man will never be able to understand nature's full complexity and interactions. We therefore choose to concentrate on observing and learning the movements of Mother Earth in her various energetic and cosmic passages and prefer to follow her indications as to what to do, instead of deciding and imposing ourselves."

That same minimalist philosophy carries straight through to the cellar. Susucaru is made from a mix of native Sicilian grape varieties, including Nerello Mascalese, Malvasia, and Inzolia. There are no added yeasts, no added sulfur, and no safety nets. This is unapologetically geeky wine.

If you’re looking for a point of reference, think pale Jura red — light in color, high in energy, and more about texture and tension than raw power.

The name Susucaru comes from a Sicilian expression meaning “they stole it.” Legend has it that Frank’s crew coined the name after realizing that much of the fruit from their first vintage had mysteriously vanished before harvest. Etna does what Etna wants.

The wine is bottled unfiltered, preserved only by what nature provides — polyphenols extracted from skin contact and a touch of carbon dioxide left over from fermentation. Nothing added. Nothing taken away.

Not everyone is on board. Some critics have called Cornelissen’s wines “a bit too much” or “unapologetically funky.” But that didn’t stop Wine Enthusiast from awarding 89 points to the 2013 Susucaru, serving as proof that even the wild kids of Etna can win over the establishment now and then.

For more information on Frank, his wines, and his philosophy, visit his website: https://www.frankcornelissen.it/.