Marco de Bartoli

History

Marco de Bartoli founded his estate in the 1970s on the western tip of Sicily, in the province of Trapani, at a moment when Marsala had been largely reduced to a cooking ingredient and a vehicle for industrial fortification. His response was to make wine the way it had been made before the trade collapsed: unfortified, oxidatively aged, and honest about what it was. His flagship, Vecchio Samperi, takes its name from the contrada where the winery sits and is produced as a perpetual solera without the addition of grape spirit, which means it cannot legally be called Marsala. De Bartoli accepted that classification consequence and sold it as a vino da tavola for decades, a stance that said everything about where his priorities lay.

He died in 2011, and the estate passed to his children, Renato, Sebastiano, and Giuseppina, who have continued along the same lines without obvious course corrections. The family also operates Bukkuram on Pantelleria, producing Moscato di Pantelleria from Zibibbo grown on that volcanic island. The two operations share a philosophy but are run as distinct projects.

Vineyards

The home estate is centred on the Samperi contrada near Marsala, where the soils are calcareous and the climate is dry and hot, tempered by sea winds off the Mediterranean. Grillo, the indigenous white variety that once formed the backbone of traditional Marsala, is the primary planting. The estate also works with Zibibbo (Muscat of Alexandria) both on the mainland vineyards and on Pantelleria. Vine training is generally low to the ground in keeping with local tradition, which helps manage water stress in the arid growing season. The estate farms without synthetic herbicides or pesticides, though formal organic certification has not always been foregrounded in their communications.

Winemaking

Vecchio Samperi is the reference point for understanding what de Bartoli does. It is an unfortified oxidative wine built on a solera system, aged in old chestnut and oak casks, and bottled at roughly 18 percent alcohol achieved naturally through extended aging and concentration rather than fortification. It is one of the few wines in Italy that can be compared structurally to a Sherry Fino or an old Madeira while remaining entirely its own thing.

The dry table wines, including the Grillo Vignaverde and Grillo Integer, are made reductively by comparison: stainless steel or neutral vessels, focused on preserving the saline, citrus-driven character of the variety. Integer, used across both the Grillo and Zibibbo lines, signals a less-interventionist approach with minimal additions. Sole e Vento and Grappoli del Grillo sit at a lighter, more approachable register within the portfolio. On Pantelleria, Zibibbo Pietranera is made as a dry or lightly sweet expression from the island's terraced vineyards. Native yeasts are used throughout. The wines are generally not heavily filtered.