Palari's Faro di Sicilia

I enjoyed the 2004 last night with a friend at CarneVino. We shared the big eye tuna crudo, gamberos al diavolo, filet mignon accompanied by balsamic roasted baby portabello caps, and carrot cake. The Faro was a beautiful pairing with the many flavors and textures on the table. A touch of smoke, fresh red fruits, perky tannin - overall, a very satisfying lighter bodied red that sustained its presence throughout the meal.

Below is a notable excerpt from klwines.com on this wine:

Sicily's most elegant wines come from this small producer located in the hills around Messina. The winemaking philosophy under Salvatore Geraci is simple: make two wines with the same indigenous grapes but with different selections. His top wine is the Faro. Faro (which means lighthouse) is a little DOC, almost the smallest in Italy. With just above 6 hectares (15 acres) in the DOC area, the production is clearly tiny. Sicily's increasing focus on modern production techniques and international varieties has had some great success, as at the Planeta estate; but Palari provides a refreshing respite from this trend with their great indigenous wines. This is a blend of Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio and Nocera aged 12 months in Troncais oak barrels and then 12 months in the bottle.