MARSALA BOOST FROM “THE LIONS OF SICILY”
Italian author Stefania Auci's best seller “The Lions of Sicily” recounting the saga of the Sicilian Florio family, has rekindled interest in Marsala, the fortified wine that the Florio company has produced for the past two centuries.
“The Lions of Sicily” will debut in streaming on the Disney + Channel on October 25th with further episodes programmed to run till the end of the year.
Marsala wine was first launched in 1773, when English merchant John Woodhouse had the bright idea of adding spirits to the wine barrels he was exporting to London to stop his cargo from deteriorating during the voyage.
After a long period of boom, during which Marsala was nominated the first Sicilian DOC wine in 1969, public tastes began to change and Marsala lost its initial popularity. It sank so low, in fact, that latterly it was used principally as an ingredient in cooking.
This is now changing, thanks to the commitment of the Florio company, which merged in 2004 with Duca di Salaparuta, an equally prestigious and historic Sicilian wine – to divide marketing and production strategies. Florio has recently developed a new range of high quality fortified wines, cosseted in enormous oak barrels in the cavernous cellars at the historic town of Marsala (Trapani, east Sicily), which are open to visitors for tours and wine tastings.
A curiosity: in 2015, Marsala wine attracted the attention of the Panton Color Institute, which elected its deep purple-red tone as “Color of the Year”and created the new tint “Pantone Marsala” available on decorators' palettes.
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