Producer Profile: Marco de Bartoli
Marco de Bartoli worked for the large Marsala firm Cantine Pellegrino before taking over his mother’s estate in 1980. He is credited with single-handedly restoring the image of Marsala both within Italy and more recently internationally through his dedication to producing a ‘real’ Marsala of highest quality and concentration. He passed away in 2011 and his sons now run the business, which has expanded to include vineyards on the island of Pantelleria.
These two unique regions, most especially Marsala, suffered significantly from a drop in quality in the late 20th century. Marsala came to be perceived as a cooking wine, but the example set by Marco de Bartoli shows its potential as a much more sophisticated and worthy beverage. Whilst the small island of Pantelleria has long been recognized for the quality of its wine within Italy, it was not well recognized internationally until the work of Marco de Bartoli helped to bring it greater exposure. The fortified wines gain much of their concentration from the use of soleras with an average age of up to 40 years.
Alongside the traditional fortified styles, the estate produces several dry styles of wine, showcasing the unique qualities of the native varietals - Grillo from Marsala and Zibbibo from Pantelleria. These wines are fermented in stainless steel and cold stabilized, something of a modern advancement for the winery in their first few vintages. Renato and Sebastiano continue to innovate, and in 2007 they released a new range of wines, called ‘Integer’ to contrast with the regular dry wines. They are made from the same juice, but undergo fermentation and batonage in old oak, creating a more textural and savoury style of wine that is also unfiltered and therefore has a distinctive cloudiness.
