Poor Marsala. It’s had a rough time of it. A reputation that has been dragged through the gutters by none other than its own producers. For many people it has been reduced to a rather generic ingredient to add to the cooking pot. Even worse, there are still those syrupy, sickly sweet bottles on the market.

Like most things in this business, you can’t tarnish everything with the same brush. There have always been exceptions, just too few of them. But is Marsala now taking a page from the book of the reinvented Sherry?

The rules surrounding the production of Marsala have been tightened up in recent years to help reestablish a long lost demand. Just like the Sherry story, demand in the past wasn’t followed up with quality production and the industry suffered.

Marsala is made around the town of Marsala, in Sicily’s ‘wild west’. It was actually an Englishman, John Woodhouse, a merchant and Port, Sherry and Madeira enthusiast, who was responsible for first production. Today Marsala can only be fortified by adding grape spirit, as Woodhouse originally did back in 1773.

The process of ‘mutage’ involves ceasing fermentation, in this case by adding alcohol, thus explaining the higher alcohol content in the final product. Typically, the high yielding Catarratto is the main component, however, the Grillo and Inzolia are also used in the better quality versions.

With premium Marsala slowly edging back into the market, I would encourage folk to give it another chance, especially if you’re already on the Sherry and Madeira train. Only last week we added our first Marsala to our list – Vito Curatolo Arini Marsala Superiore Riserva. I can assure you this stuff ain’t for the cooking pot.

The island of Sicilia (also known as Sicily), is situated at the foot of Italy and is one of the country’s most important regions in terms of wine production. The hilly and mountainous terrain coupled with scorching temperatures, unbroken sunshine and low rain fall also make ideal conditions for the most beautifully ripe fruit and vegetables.

Deriving its name from the town of Avola on the Island’s southern tip, the red Nero d’Avola truly is a Sicilian great. These wines are generally big, long lived reds, with sweet tannins, and plummy-like dark fruits. Many winemakers would compare it to Syrah in the way it’s treated in the vineyard.

The native white wine, Catarratto, is crisp and appealing. It accounts for around 38% of plantings, and is primarily used as a table wine in Sicily, although there are some interesting examples, the best of which show good characteristics with lovely citrussy notes. There’s not much Catarratto available in Ireland, but it’s well worth a try if you have the opportunity to buy.

Sicily has a number of co-operatives, one from which we have sourced an award winning Nero d’Avola and a Catarratto under the name of Doricum. We were very impressed by the price vs quality ratio of both, in particular the red.

Feudi di Sant’Eufamia is the name of the co-operative, whose members own a massive 4,500 hectares in the Salemi area of western Sicily. The aim of the group is to produce wines of a consistently high quality that express the local terroir and grape varieties whilst being approachable, fresh and modern.

I would say those goals have been achieved in style. Remember the name – Doricum.