The Making of a 100-Point Wine: A Marsala That Is Saving History

By WineBottleMag
February 8, 2025
100Point History Making Marsala Saving Wine
With 0 comments

Francesco Intorcia realized that his family’s cellar had the potential to produce high quality, unique Marsala, following the tradition that had made the northwest corner of Sicily one of the world’s great wine regions. That heritage, however, was slowly being lost to the annals of history.

In 2010, he evaluated the vintages aging in the cellar and began to carefully select barrels that could exalt all the elements of this centuries-old winemaking process.

The result: a line-up of some of the most magnificent Marsala expressions on the planet. The most spectacular of all is the utterly life-altering 1980 Riserva Vergine Secco—which I scored with a rare 100-points during a blind tasting last summer.

Here’s why—and how—it blew me away.

Francesco Intorcia fills a glass of Marsala Vintage 1980 Riserva Vergine Secco directly from the barrels – Image Courtesy of @phwalterparrinello

The Wine

Francesco Intorcia Heritage Marsala Vintage 1980 Riserva Vergine Secco is a fortified wine made using the historic low-intervention solera-style method that blends wines from different vintages, gradually increasing the overall age of the liquid in the barrel over the course of many years. It is composed of 100% Sicilian-grown Grillo grapes and is aged for 35 years minimum in large-format oak barrels.

Wooden boxes containing Grillo grapes for the production of Marsala wines, located in the north, next to the salt pans of Marsala. – Image Courtesy of @cantineintorcia

The Grape

Like when Sangiovese becomes Brunello or Nebbiolo becomes Barolo, the white Sicilian Grillo grape is used in a wide variety of expressions. It realizes its greatest potential as Marsala. Deeply savory and mineral with fierce acid and tangy, sunny citrus components, Grillo is like Sauvignon Blanc all grown up. Given time to mature in oak and then luxuriate in the warmth of Marsala’s higher potential alcohol content, it reveals leagues of depth and incredible longevity.

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The Suggested Retail Price

Intorcia’s Marsalas, of which there are several created in each of the different historical styles, are all very reasonably priced. Even the ultra-rare and unique Marsala 1980 Riserva Vergine Secco comes in at $130. It’s wildly accessible for a wine that receives more time and attention than a top house vintage Champagne and that has the potential to age for many, many more years.

Photos of the historical artifacts of Cantine Intorcia. – Image Courtesy of @cantineintorcia

The Backstory

Once the pride of Sicily and one of the most sought-after wines in the world, with its long-aging period and labor-intensive production, Marsala’s fame waned in tandem with the rise of preservation technologies and modes of transport that made it possible to stabilize fresher, younger wines.

As consumers developed new, different tastes, fortified wines, perhaps inevitably, fell out of fashion. The incentive to find short-cuts to get Marsala to market faster meant that poor quality examples began to dilute the wine’s identity. Over the last few decades, however, many producers from families that have been making Marsala for generations have renewed their efforts to return Marsala to its former glory. Francesco Intorcia’s “Heritage” project is carrying the banner in the march to see Marsala seated back on its rightful throne.

The bottle of Marsala Riserva Vergine 1980 with the Tino No.1 barrel in the background. – Image Courtesy of @cantineintorcia

The Why

More like the “why not” in this case. Conscientiously produced and aimed at preserving not just a local tradition but indeed an entire cultural patrimony, this is a wine that gives you a chance to literally save history as you sip it.

Marsala is a new experience for most consumers right now, so the dive into its deep-rooted tradition is both enriching and exhilarating. But the only real reason to drink any wine is because of how good it tastes, and the 1980 Riserva Vergine Secco is more than good—a taste of this wine could change the way you look at the world.

Intorcia says he feels the vibrations of the past shake his soul when he’s in the cellar with his wines. Drinking his Marsala you’ll understand what he means.

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