(WR) There’s a thread running through Sicilian wine these past weeks, tying it together from the island’s north to its east. It’s the thread of the new generations. A few weeks ago, Assovini Sicilia chose Gabriella Favara, an under-30 member of Donnafugata, placing a board of directors entirely under 40 at the helm of its one hundred wineries. Today, the same challenge is being repeated on the hills overlooking the Strait of Messina: the Consorzio di Tutela Vino DOC Faro has a new president, Stelio Verzera, born in 1996. And it’s not an isolated case—it’s, indeed, a thread.
Verzera replaces Enza La Fauci at the helm of a denomination small in numbers but big in history. Administrator and owner of Vigneti Verzera, a company he runs with his sister Maria Luisa, a graduate in business administration, he is already vice president of the Young Entrepreneurs of Sicindustria Messina. A profile that speaks volumes about the direction taken: those who reach the top don’t improvise, but bring with them managerial training and a foot in the business world.
The turnover, however, isn’t a break. It’s here that the parallel with Assovini becomes closer. Just as Favara is the daughter and granddaughter of the Rallos, and therefore embodies a change of scenery within a very strong family continuity, so the new Board of Directors at Faro brings together the denomination’s historic wineries and younger producers. Alongside Verzera are Francesco Reitano of Tenuta Rasocolmo, vice president, and Aldo De Domenico of Soprano di Sindaro, secretary and—like the president himself—under 30. Directors include Biagio Bonfiglio of Cantine Bonfiglio and Pietro La Tona of Cantine Cuppari. Two under-30s in the management team aren’t a mere demographic detail: they’re a strategic choice.
And this direction is being taken in a significant year. 2026 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Faro DOC designation, established by decree on December 3, 1976. Half a century of one of Sicily’s most distinctive red wines—produced exclusively in the Municipality of Messina, using native grape varieties overlooking the Strait of Messina—is now handing over the keys to those who will guide it for the next fifty years.
The plan is already on the table. The official half-century celebrations, the establishment of a Faro DOC Day as an annual event, an institutional presence at the next Vinitaly with a conference in the Sicily Pavilion, and a territorial marketing project designed to further connect the wine to the city of Messina.
“The fiftieth anniversary represents a unique opportunity to look to the future with enthusiasm and responsibility,” said Verzera, announcing a consortium that is “more authoritative, more participatory, and capable of giving the Faro DOC the visibility it deserves.”
Two appellations different in size and vocation, two appointments just weeks apart, the same underlying idea: that the island’s wine, to continue to grow in the markets and speak out around the world, needs young voices. In Sicily, generational change has ceased to be a conference buzzword. It’s become a byline.