A sweet or semi-sweet, fortified, amber or dark DOC wine from the extreme north west of Sicily made predominantly with Grillo grapes and much used in cooking. Other grapes used in the production of the amber Marsala are white Catarratto and Inzolia while the dark versions are made with red Perricone, Calabrese and Nerello Mascalese grapes. It is made using the process called perpetuum, similar to the solera process used in making sherry. The wines are aged in wooden barrels. Nowadays, Marsala is fortified by the addition of sifone made from sweet wine and alcohol.
Wines which, through oxidation, take on flavours of Marsala. Favourable when controlled in certain dessert wines, but undesirable in most table wines.
A name in the vicinity of Catanzaro in Calabria for Greco, a grape variety, both white (bianco) and black (nero), used for making wine It gained fame because of the DOCG status awarded to Albana di Romagna wines. The Greco variety of grape was originally cultivated on the slopes of Vesuvius, where it was given the name Lacryma Christi. It was later planted in the province of Avellino, where it was given the denomination Greco di Tufa.
