1988 Marco de Bartoli Marsala Virgine Riserva

This wine is 100% Grillo, considered the higher quality grape for Marsala production. And yes, you read right, it's from 1988!!! Dry, complex, sipping Marsala that rivals any fine Sherry? yes please!

Marsala was never a cooking wine, in fact, it was the most revered wine of Sicily. The oxidized wine tradition most likely came from the ancient Pheonicians, who brought their winemaking influence all over the Mediterranean - from Marsala, to Vernaccia di Oristano in Sardegna, to Sherry and Madeira in Spain. The 1980s was a devastating turn for Marsala and is when it became synonymous with cheap cooking wine.

There are few producers to have stayed true to the origins of the wine, making long aged, solera style versions. One being Marco de Bartoli, who's Marsala and Passito di Pantelleria are amongst the most well known and most difficult to find.

add on Piacentinu Ennese cheese pairing, an ancient cheese recipe, made with sheep's milk, saffron and black peppercorn. The recipe is so coveted that it is a DOP (protected origin) and producers can only use milk from native Sicilian breeds of sheep.

Produced in nine municipalities in the province of Enna, it is a pecorino cheese with a compact texture and one of a kind: the saffron gives its characteristic yellow color and an aromatic note, the wrinkles in the rind by molding it in rush baskets.