Faro

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Accessory grape varieties

Terroir

• The production zone extends within the municipality of Messina alone, stretching 32 kilometres along the Ionian coast from Giampilieri Marina to Capo Peloro and 24 kilometres along the Tyrrhenian coast from Capo Peloro to Ortoliuzzo.
• The soils tend toward alluvial types with a medium clay-loam texture, and the terrain is predominantly hilly in this area enclosed between the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Ionian Sea.
• The winds that characterise the area of the Strait of Messina protect the vines from excessive humidity.
• The predominantly hilly topography of the production zone and the favourable exposure of the vineyards together create a well-ventilated and sun-filled environment, with naturally free-draining soils.
• The climate of the production zone is distinctly Mediterranean and well suited to quality viticulture.

• The name Faro is thought to derive either from the ancient Pharii, a Greek people who colonised the hills of Messina and dedicated themselves to vine cultivation, or from Punta Faro or Capo Peloro.
• Faro wine was already produced in the Mycenaean age, in the fourteenth century BC, and in the nineteenth century it was exported to France as a blending wine for the wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux during the phylloxera outbreaks.
• In the province of Messina, the area under vine grew from 18,000 hectares in 1848 to 40,000 hectares in the last decade of the nineteenth century, with an annual wine production of up to 500,000 hectolitres.

• Faro wine has a ruby-red colour of varying intensity, with a tendency toward brick-red with ageing, while the palate is dry, harmonious, and medium-bodied. (via Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0)
• The wine displays balanced chemical and physical characteristics that contribute to its gustatory equilibrium, with pleasant, harmonious, distinctive, and elegant aromas typical of the source grape varieties.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Italy

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-IT-A0781
• Official trade body site — Consorzio di Tutela Vino Faro DOC