History

It was 1773, when John Woodhouse, a commercial trader from Liverpool, was sailing towards Sicily  and, because of a violent storm, had to stop in the town of Marsala.  The locals had been producing for years a wine called perpetuum, a blend of white grapes that was kept  in wooden barrels, and topped up every year with the best wine from each vintage. Woodhouse immediately saw  the potential of this product, and decided to ship some barrels back to England: concerned that it would suffer the long journey, he added alcohol to fortify it, and when the barrels arrived in England, the first Marsala was born.
It was an instant success with the British and other entrepreneurs, such as Ingham and Whitaker, who soon hurried out to exploit the wine’s popularity.
Once the Royal Navy adopted Marsala instead of Rum due the Rum wars restricting supply in the late 1700’s: the great Marsala Houses were born.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the English dominion in Marsala-making was brought to an end by the arrival of Vincenzo Florio, who was then followed by Vito Curatolo Arini and many others