This is the benchmark "Classico" of the estate. It is a master blend of several high-altitude contrade in the Northern Valley. The 2024 is soaring and aromatic, offering a crystalline expression of sour cherry, blood orange, and that unmistakable smoky, pumice-stone minerality. It is the perfect introduction to the serious, structured side of Cornelissen's cellar.
2024 Frank Cornelissen “Munjebel”
94 PTS
— Orazio Campoli, July 2026
About the Producer
Frank Cornelissen is the Belgian-born radical who proved that Etna could produce wines of shocking purity without a safety net. A former wine merchant and alpinist, he settled on the volcano’s northern slope and began farming with no chemicals and virtually no cellar intervention. Once divisive, he is now a global reference point for uncompromising natural winemaking.
The Munjebel wines are the heart of the estate and read like a lesson in contrade. Munjebel itself is the classic blend of several high-altitude sites in the northern valley, crystalline and smoky. The single-contrada bottlings each speak in their own voice: MC (Monte Colla), from steep terraces on sandy clay, is the broadest and most powerful; CD (Calderara Sottana), on pure rock, has searing tension and sharp tannins; CR (Campo Re), high up, is ethereal and floral; CS (Chiusa Spagnolo), from ungrafted vines in an amphitheatre of lava, is dense and brooding; and VA (Vigne Alte) blends the highest parcels into the most laser-focused wine of the range.
Magma is the apex, made only in exceptional vintages from ungrafted, pre-phylloxera Nerello Mascalese in the Barbabecchi contrada: monumental in concentration, seamless and endless, and among the greatest wines made in Italy today. At the other end, the Susucaru Rosato and Rosso are joyful, chillable volcanic wines that practically evaporate from the glass.