If you’ve been reading our offers lately, you know I’ve just returned from a two-month European tour that included a lengthy—and magical—stay in Sicily. I’ll be blunt: The diversity and quality of wine coming from Sicily right now may well be unparalleled in Italy; some will disagree with me, but I came away convinced.
First on everyone’s minds these days are the wines of Mount Etna, but further east, in the hills overlooking the Strait of Messina, is the tiny appellation of Faro—home to architect/gentleman farmer Salvatore Geraci, whose Palari wines became international sensations well before most of their cousins up on the Etna volcano. Palari Faro was forever ingrained in the minds of sommeliers and collectors when it won “Best Red Wine of 2008” from Gambero Rosso, the influential Italian wine publication (for the 2005 vintage of today’s wine). Based on the same indigenous Sicilian grapes as Etna reds—Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio—and grown in similar volcanic soils, Palari’s Faro was not only a trailblazing ‘Burgundian’ style of Sicilian red but a wine which, when it debuted in 1990, effectively rescued an ancient wine-production zone from oblivion. Even today, Faro is one of the smallest—if not the smallest—officially delimited wine appellations in Italy, with about 15 hectares of vines in total and only a handful of producers. I had the honor of spending the day with Salvatore Geraci and tasting back vintages of his now-iconic flagship—and the highlight was the 2010. We immediately contacted the importer and secured a small allocation for us to offer today. Before many of us had Etna Rosso on our radar, there was this wine—the one that put Faro, and modern Sicilian wine in general, on the fine wine map. Don’t miss it!
First off, let me re-create the setting: Geraci’s small cellar is housed in a spectacular 18th century villa perched in the hills of Santo Stefano di Briga, overlooking Messina and the Mediterranean. The vineyards, spilling somewhat haphazardly down steep, terraced slopes and consisting mostly of gnarled, bush-trained alberelli (“little trees”), don’t look like they produce very much, and there aren’t a lot of them: his holdings in the zone total around five hectares. In addition to Nerello Mascalese, which has now catapulted to international fame, the mix in these old vineyards also includes Mascalese’s sidekick, Nerello Cappuccio, as well as an even-lesser-known assortment of native varieties, including Nocera, Acitana, and several others.
Geraci, a native of Messina who’d gained renown as an architect specializing in large-scale restorations, inherited the property that would become Palari from his grandfather. His first focus was on restoring the villa, but he was also a wine aficionado whose friendship with legendary Italian wine writer Luigi Veronelli prompted him to invest in the vineyards as well. With the help of his agronomist brother, Giampiero, and Piedmontese consulting enologist Donato Lanati, he created a cult classic from Nerello Mascalese long before any of Etna’s reds really caught fire (he’s now got his own project up on Etna as well, based around a choice plot of old vines purchased from a famous Sicilian folk singer).
Much of the wine I tasted at Palari during my visit was from barrel, as Geraci has no ‘set’ aging regimen for his flagship wine. Crafted predominantly from Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, with smaller percentages of Nocera and several other local varieties, Palari Faro is aged in French oak barriques and tonneaux for an extended period that changes from vintage to vintage, followed by at least 18 months in bottle before release. Geraci and team are constantly revisiting the wines to determine when they are ready, so to have a 2010 that was only recently released from his cool cellars is not unusual; this wine is entering its peak drinking window, as they did all the work for us!
In the glass, the 2010 Faro is a deep garnet red with hints of black at the core and brick at the rim. The nose is an assertive mix of wild red and black berries, blood orange, black cherry, leaf tobacco, damp underbrush, grilled herbs, and a delicate whiff of smoke. Medium-bodied and now quite silky and refined on the palate, it is indeed ‘Burgundian’ in personality, but with a warmer, riper fruit component—it smells and tastes ‘Mediterranean’ but has the kind of lift and freshness typically associated with cooler-climate reds. Now with some age, intriguing ‘secondary’ notes of leather, hazelnut, and dried rose petal are starting to emerge; it is nearly peaking (drink through 2025) and ready to drink now, blossoming nicely after about 30 minutes in a decanter. Serve in at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems and pair it with a piquant Sicilian-style swordfish preparation. I just got home, but I’m ready to go back just thinking about it! Enjoy!
