Propagating Vines and Fortifying Wines

Ciao and good morning! This post was written by Megan Stanek, a junior majoring in Wine Studies

We started the day with an early wake up call to get on our bus and head to Marsala. Marsala is a region known for their production of the Marsala fortified wine, as well as a multitude of different foods and other indigenous products such as olive oil and seafood dishes. Our first stop of the day was to the Vivaio Manonne vine nursery. The nursery specializes in crafting rootstock to young vines to prevent against phylloxera outbreaks as well as several other pests and diseases that the vines can be exposed to. Vivaio Manonne has been working with vines since 1895 in the same location it is now, even with some of the original buildings from the beginning. They started cultivating vines in 1990 with around 20,000 hectares of workspace, to now having between 95,000 and 100,000 hectares. They work with every kind of varietal they can, using 15 international varietals and 54 varieties traditional to the area, furthering the information around the varietals they use, 70% of the vines are white wine and the remaining 30% are red. While touring we were taken along the journey of the vine to being cultivated for root stock. Starting with the cuttings being brought it, we were shown how they are trimmed and cleaned through an automatic machine to make sure they are in the best condition for production. After they are cleaned the vine gets cut into small pieces, cut so that they have one bud on each of them.

Workers at a nursery trim grapevines cuttings. — Skilled workers at the nursery trim grapevine cuttings that will become the trunk of a new grapevine after being grafted onto a rootstock

We got to see the method in which they cleaned the vines and cut them. After they are all set and properly taken care of the vines are grafted together using a machine that creates a puzzle-piece-type cut in the vine and the rootstock to ensure the best outcome. After they are grafted the vines are cultivated in a regulated room to start growing, after about 10 days they are moved into the vineyard where they establish roots. Once the roots are establishing the vines are analyzed for their growth then dipped in a specific color of paraffin to be sold. We as a group were also welcomed to try and graft our own vines with the machine they use!

Workers at the nursery use a machine to punch shapes out of the vine cutting. — The nursery team shows us how to use the machine that punches puzzle-piece shapes out of the vine cutting and rootstock so they can slip together to form a new vine customized for the vineyard for which its ordered

The next stop on our day was to Florio Marsala Winery. While at Florio Marsala we got to hear to history of Marsala wine. Our guide shared with us the story of an English man who came to Marsala in 1773 to try the wine, while he was there, he wanted to bring some wine back with him to England, but he had to add alcohol to the barrels to preserve the wine for the duration of the trip, thus the first fortified wine was created! Our tour of Florio took us though their barrel rooms, one of the first of many incredible sights was the second biggest barrel in the world, placing second in a contest held in San Francisco during 1915, This barrel could hold 62,000 liters of wine! After that we there was a part of their cellar called the Garibaldi room. Which if the name didn’t spoil it was dedicated to Giuseppe Garibaldi who just so happened to be close to the Florio family. So close that he donated some of the arms used in the unification of Italy to Florio, which are on displayed in the cellar. Hearing and seeing the history of the family and of the region really opened my mind to how historic this winery is to the region, and the story continued to grow when we got to the barrel room. Here they store more than 3,000 barrels of wine with varying vintages. The oldest being from 1939 and 1941 which are not only valuable because of their age but also because they survived the bombing from the second world war.

An enormous wine blending tank. — The enormous blending tank at the historic Florio winey in Marsala

After the tour, we were able to taste three of their wines: Marsala Fini, Superiore Reserve from 2006, and Superiore. Each of the Marsala was unique in taste and flavor profile. The different types of wine are based on their time aging and the amount of boiled and concentrated grape must (unfermented juice) added to the blend.

Glasses of 3 premium Marsala wines paired with food. — Our tasting of three premium Marsala paired with a food at Florio

Next, we headed out to our last destination of the day Alagna Marsala Winery for a tour of the winery, lunch, and a tasting. Our tour of the grounds started with us meeting owner, who told us about the history and genral information of the winery. Alagna was founded 75 years ago in 1946, and has been a family business ever since, in its third generation now. The winery itself is around 3400 hectoliters producing 1,400,000 liters of wine. Something interesting I learned is that the temperature in the natural caves under the winery stays the same all year. One of the most fascinating parts of the winery tour was when they took us down to a 1,000-year-old“cave” were they blend Merlot, Nero D’avola, and Syrah for 6 months in oak wood. They use this “cave area because it keeps cool all year and the humidity levels are perfect for the aging barrels.

After tour we had a three-course meal all paired with wine. The appetizer consisted of olive oil with bread, pizza, salami, cheese with orange blossom honey, olives, and toast with olive spread all paired with the wines from the winery. After the appetizer we had arancino, which is a Sicilian delicacy made with rice, vegetables, and a tomato and meat sauce traditionally. Lastly, we had a baked pasta to finish the main course. Dessert was oranges with one of the sweetest Alagna Marsalas poured on top, cannoli, sesame biscuit, candy biscuits and a 1,000-year-old Sicilian dessert of traditional bread soaked in Marsala. The wines that we were paired with the meals were threetypes of Marsala, Grillo, Syrah, Lanni, Vermouth, Zibbibo, Mascato, and a variety of Marsala-based cremes.

A table set with multiple styles of Marsala wine paired with food from the region. — Our lunch of multiple styles of Marsala paired with traditional dishes of the region

After a full day of exploring the wine region and getting to taste some of the best wines in the world, we decided to see a salt farm on the coast. Sadly, the facility was closed, but we did get to explore the area and see the areas where the cultivate the salt and how they produce it. Our guide told us that they harvest the salt through evaporation over time. The saltwater gets pushed in from the sea into the calderas where the water gets trapped and slowly evaporates leaving behind fresh crystals of salt to be harvested and sold. Fun fact about the evaporation process: you can tell how much evaporation has occurred based on the color of the water- the pinker it gets the more it has evaporated.

A large stream used for salt production, which slowly evaporates leaving the salt; blue skies above. — Salt production in Trapani