BARREL AGED SPIRITS COLLECTION

BARREL-AGED SPIRITS COLLECTION

Florio _117

FLORIO AND MARSALA

equipment available at the time, regulated by strict production rules and, most important ly, fully equipped for the “concia” of Marsala, that is, the complex practice of adding cooked must to the wine followed by aging, which was essential as it allowed it to acquire its true prestige. While they used their fleet to break into the American, British and European markets in an increasingly successful manner, Florio’s Marsala conquered Italy, a booming market that was practically overlooked by the British. Any profits earned were reinvested in expan sion and technology, so much so that, by 1880, the Florio “wine farm” had grown to become a state-of-the-art oenological complex, with di rect access to the sea, huge storage warehous es for storing and aging wines, as well as a still, so that the brandy needed to produce Marsala could be distilled on site.

The history of Italian Marsala wine began in 1833, when Vincenzo Florio (1799-1868) decid ed to purchase a plot of land situated between the Woodhouse and Ingham-Withaker facto ries. A goal had been set from the start: “to build a factory for the production of wines used like Madeira”, which was what Marsala was called at the time. Things got off to a rocky start with poor profits, especially due to well-established competition from England. But by the end of the mid-19th century, the Marsala wines pro duced by Florio were beginning to undermine the British monopoly. Vincenzo Florio had an ambitious industrial project from the outset, which he financed using the huge capital ac cumulated from trading spices, tuna fisheries, the sulphur industry, and a fast-growing mer chant fleet. So, the Florio establishment was founded as a contemporary factory, provided with the best

Cantinte Florio was the first Italian producer in the world to produce Marsala, aiming from the very beginning to improve the quality.