100% Grillo. All of De Bartoli's marsala wines are pure Grillo, a rarity--as is their being fromn organically farmed, hand-harvested, estate fruit. The bunches are gently pressed and the must fermented spontaneously with natural yeasts in wooden vats. The wine is first aged for a year in large tronconic wood vats. The portion of it destined to become a Superiore is drawn off and fortified with a mistella, a combination of fresh Grillo must and distilled Grillo spirit from De Bartoli fruit (another rarity). The fortified wine then goes into a solera system of barrels of varying sizes and ages; the barrels are never fully topped, so the aging of the wine in the system is oxidative.

For their vintage-labeled Superiore Riservas, the wine is drawn off to be further aged, untopped, in individual barrels; that year of its going into barrel becomes the vintage date on the bottle. The Marsala DOC requires a minimum aging of only 4 years for Superiore Riserva; De Bartoli’s versions are aged in wood for 15-20 years at least before bottling. Residual sugar is usually in the 50-60-grams/liter range.

Note: the “Oro” in the name of the wine simply indicates that the grapes in the wine are all authorized white varieties (again, De Bartoli uses none except Grillo).