Marsala Superiore Riserva DOC 1985 ambra semi secco · 0,75l in OWC

Carlo Pellegrino | Sicily
Carlo Pellegrino & C. S.p.A. | Via Del Fante 39 | IT 91025 Marsala

35000042 · 0,75 l · 92,00 €/l · Price (DE) incl. VAT, excl. Shipping11 units available

The year is 1773: John Woodhouse, an English merchant on his way to Mazara to collect a consignment of soda ash, is forced by a storm into the harbour of Marsala. In a tavern, he samples ‘Perpetuum’ – the local wine, which he describes as having a high alcohol content, similar to Port and Madeira. The idea strikes him immediately: if a little spirit were added to this wine, it would survive the long sea voyage to England. It is that first sip that marks the beginning of a chapter in wine history.

Carlo Pellegrino, founded in 1880 by the notary Paolo Pellegrino and his son, is one of those establishments that not only know this history, but preserve it in their historic cellars – corridors lined with long rows of barrels, subdued lighting, the scent of decades spent in wood. These are spaces where time passes differently. The Marsala Superiore Riserva 1985 is a product of these rooms. Grillo and Catarratto, harvested in the second week of September when fully ripe. Fermentation at 20 to 22°C, fortification with pure wine alcohol, and the addition of concentrated grape must, which gives the Ambra Marsala its characteristic colour and caramelised sweetness. Then the wood: over 48 months in 50- and 80-hectolitre botti, followed by at least six months in barriques. 1985 was a vintage that has gathered its decades within this bottle.

A deep golden amber with copper and mahogany highlights. On the nose: honey, dried orange, vanilla, candied fruit, nuts, fig, carob, sweet spices – a depth that no young Marsala can match. On the palate, it is smooth and intense, the sweetness of the Semisecco balanced by the oxidative complexity of the long ageing process; the final is long, warm and seemingly endless. Forty years of Marsala in a single glass. SUPERIORE.DE