Rare Wines, lit by the lighthouse

Jan 18 2023, 12:38 | by Gambero Rosso
Few hectares, great quality. In this episode we tell you about two rare wines that look out over the Strait of Messina; we are within the Faro appellation, between nocera and francisa grape varieties. We get to know two flag-bearers wineries: Palari and Bonavita.

On the shores of the Messina Strait, or rather the Pharo –– few are aware that the narrow strip of sea separating Sicily and Calabria, certainly from at least the X century and until the mid-XIX century, was also called Pharo in the official documents of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Until the phylloxera vine pest, the province of Messina, which is now the smallest of the winemaking areas in Sicily in terms of production, was, together with Catania, among the most planted with vines on the entire island.

On the other hand, without venturing into erudite and boring citations, grapes were grown on the banks of the Messina Strait, and successfully, since ancient times, as attested by classic authors such as Strabone, Pliny and Martial, to mention the most famous. Most likely the first semantic connection between Pharo and wine was born around the XII century when the Basilian monks founded the monastery of Santissimo Salvatore "in the Phari language" on the remains of a hermitage, i.e. in the crescent-shaped area of the port of Messina.

Around the monastery, one of the richest in Sicily –– so much so that it even had its own scriptorium –– the monks are documented to have also grown grapes and certainly produced wine until the XVIth century when the monastery was transformed into a fortress by the Spaniards. Only much more recently, in the middle of the XXth century, does Faro wine begin to identify itself with the homonymous village at the mouth of the Strait where, in truth, zibibbo has always been grown, while the namesake wine was produced on all the hills framing the city of Messina.

Just as the wine produced in Messina has always been born from what we would now call a complantation between different grapes: nerello mascalese and cappuccio, but also nocera, nero d'Avola, rigorously cultivated and harvested together. To get an idea of how developed and varied grape farming was in the Messina area, remember that in the first specification of 1976 it was possible to use even small percentages of Sangiovese and Barbera.

The nocera and 'francisa' -as for the local toponym- are the two grape varieties behind the two labels of this episode, the former found in Bonavita winery's fascinating Ilnò 2021, and the latter in Santa.Né 2012, a wine with a very limited number of bottles from Palari winery.

Rare Wines. Two red wines from Sicily to discover

 

Ilnò 2021

Bonavita
Sicily
red
Score: 
93
/100
VINEYARD | Nocera is a grape that is widespread almost exclusively in the area of the province of Messina and of Faro Doc in particular, so much so that it has been an integral part of its specification since 1976. The vineyard that to this day Giovanni Scarfone still uses for his Faro and in our case especially for Ilnò was planted by his grandfather around 1950, between the Bonavita and Mangiavacchi districts in the hills of Faro Superiore at about 500 metres above sea level, less than a kilometre as the crow flies from the Strait that divides Sicily from Calabria. PERSON | Giovanni Scarfone was not only born in this vineyard, but he has worked there since he...
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Santa.Nè 2012

Palari
Sicily
red
Score: 
93
/100
VINEYARD |  Santa.Nè has always been the name of this ancient vineyard located on the steep hills overlooking the Strait, south of the urban centre of Messina. Here, just before the Palari hill, at about 500 metres above sea level, resting on a sort of clayey deck, is this small vineyard, now almost a century old. It is not known what grape variety it is, they have always called it 'a francisa, the French. Salvatore Geraci, who took it over more than twenty years ago, claims that it is most likely a genetic mutation of petit verdot. What we know for sure is that in the early years of the XX century a variety known as 'a francisa was widespread...
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