“Il Censo” is a product of a quarter-century-old friendship and deeply gifted talent in the vineyard and cellar coming together at an ancient Sicilian family property. Gaetano Gargano met Giampiero Bea in the early 1990s and the two struck up an immediate friendship founded on a similar sense of humor and their mutual ability to enlighten and help one another. Gaetano was an experienced financial professional and helped the Bea family make informed decisions while Giampiero fed Gaetano’s insatiable curiosity and passion for wine. This bond continually deepened over the years, and in the late 2000s, the two came upon an ideal opportunity to combine their skills and interests. 

Gaetano and his wife’s family were rehabilitating a centuries-old inherited estate in the village of Palazzo Adriano. Roughly 100 miles west of Mount Etna and 40 miles south of Palermo, Sicily, this ancient township sits perched 2,000 feet high in the hills. Palazzo Adriano is a rural and extraordinarily picturesque village. The region feels somehow forgotten by modernity and resembles the idealized Sicily as depicted in films. This is not a coincidence—Palazzo Adriano is located just south of Corleone and is the setting of the Oscar-winning film, “Cinema Paradiso.” It is no wonder that Gaetano dreamed of reintroducing viticulture to this magical property and that after one visit, Giampiero needed no further persuasion to join the endeavor. 

The two men selected a 2,100-foot-high hillside as the ideal location for their vineyard and with Giampiero’s experience and supervision, Gaetano planted 2.5 hectares of the white grape Catarratto and 2.5 hectares of the variety that makes up this wine, Perricone. Also known as Pignatello (and locally as “Njuro Cane,” the black dog), Perricone is a thick-skinned red variety that is planted across western Sicily. Like the Sagrantino of Giampiero’s estate in Montefalco, Perricone produces wines with dark and concentrated color, robust tannins, and no shortage of raw power. After manual harvest in October, the juice is fermented without temperature control, sulfur, filtration or fining. This is as pure, unadulterated, and healthful a wine as we’ve ever offered.

The 2013 Il Censo Rosso “Njuro” splashes into the glass with a storm of dark garnet and purple hues. Like most of my favorite wines from Sicily, this is neither a delicate nor understated wine. On the contrary, it’s a fire-breathing beast; a mouthful of brambly dark fruit, blueberry, sour cherry, raspberry leaf, fennel, shattered lava stone, exotic wildflowers and north African spices. Its palate dominates with black currant, pomegranate, wet roses, fresh grape stems, and a solid wall of deeply mineral tannins. Decant for 1 hour and serve at 60 degrees in a large Bordeaux stem—but let the pomp and circumstance end there. This is a rustic, primal wine whose appetite demands a caveman cut of red meat. I encourage you to make a special evening out of this bottle. First, turn off your cellphone, then pull the cork on this bottle alongside a sizzling platter of mouthwatering seared lamb chops. Finally, dim the lights, sit back and press ‘play’ on “The Godfather.” Buon Appetito!