Marsala Wine: Styles, Labels, Cooking and Substitutes

Marsala is a fortified wine from the western tip of Sicily. Grape spirit or wine brandy is added to the wine, which is then aged in wood, and the result comes in three colors (gold, amber and ruby) and three sweetness levels (dry, medium and sweet). Most Americans know it from chicken marsala, but the better bottles are worth sipping too. This guide explains the label, which bottle to buy for cooking, what to use if you have none and how long an open bottle keeps.

Most of the rules below come from the official production rules (the disciplinare) of the Marsala DOC, the Italian protected designation of origin. DOC stands for denominazione di origine controllata.

What Marsala is

The disciplinare defines Marsala as a vino liquoroso, a liqueur wine: a wine strengthened with ethyl alcohol of grape origin or with wine brandy (acquavite di vino). Only those two additions are allowed for fortification.

• Where it comes from: the grapes must be grown in the province of Trapani, excluding the towns of Pantelleria, Favignana and Alcamo. Every production step, and the bottling, must happen inside that zone.
• Since when: the DOC rules were first approved in 1969. Wikipedia traces the wine’s commercial story back to 1773, when the Liverpool merchant John Woodhouse landed at Marsala; he began large-scale production in 1796. Benjamin Ingham, from Leeds, arrived in 1806 and opened new markets, and the Florio family later bought Woodhouse’s firm.
• The landscape: the disciplinare describes an almost flat area, from about 50 meters above sea level on the coast to 300 meters on the low hills, with a hot, dry Mediterranean climate and frequent hot winds from Africa.

For how Marsala compares with Port, Sherry and Madeira, see our guide to fortified wine.

The grapes

Marsala color	Grapes allowed
Oro (gold) and ambra (amber)	Grillo, Catarratto, Ansonica (locally called Inzolia), Damaschino
Rubino (ruby)	Perricone (locally Pignatello), Nero d’Avola (locally Calabrese), Nerello Mascalese, plus up to 30% of the white grapes above

The grapes must reach at least 12% potential alcohol, and yields are capped at 10 tonnes per hectare for white grapes and 9 for red.

The three colors

The disciplinare describes the colors simply:

• Oro: a more or less intense golden color.
• Ambra: a more or less intense amber-yellow.
• Rubino: ruby red that picks up amber tints as it ages.

The difference between oro and ambra is partly mosto cotto, grape must cooked down into a dark, sweet syrup. The rules ban it in Fine and Superiore Marsala of the oro and rubino types, and require at least 1% in Fine and Superiore ambra. Wine Folly notes that cooked must gives Marsala color and caramel flavor. Ambra is the style most people picture when they think of Marsala.

Dry, medium or sweet

Sweetness is measured as reducing sugars, and the label may say:

Label term	Sugar (grams per liter)	What to expect
Secco	Under 40	Dry; the cooking choice for savory dishes
Semisecco	40 to 100	Medium sweet
Dolce	Over 100	Sweet; for desserts and after dinner

Wine Folly describes the range as running from nearly dry to very sweet, with common flavors of vanilla, brown sugar, stewed apricot and tamarind, and dried fruit, walnut, honey and tobacco in older bottles.

Aging categories: Fine to Vergine

The other word on the label tells you how long the wine was aged. The disciplinare sets these minimums:

Category	Minimum aging	Minimum alcohol	Notes
Fine	1 year	17.5%	The everyday and cooking level
Superiore	2 years	18%	May be labeled “Vecchio”
Superiore Riserva	4 years	18%
Vergine or Soleras	5 years	18%	No cooked must, concentrated must or sifone; low sugar
Vergine Stravecchio or Vergine Riserva	10 years	18%	The longest-aged Marsala

Aging has to happen in wooden casks, preferably oak or cherry, except for the first four months of a Fine, which may be in other containers. Vergine Marsala may only be sold in bottles.

Sifone is must with spirit or brandy added to it, a sweetening ingredient allowed in the younger categories. Vergine gets none of it, which is why it is the driest and, in our view, the most interesting Marsala to drink on its own.

Old label abbreviations

You may still see traditional initials on bottles. The rules reserve I.P. (Italia Particolare) for Marsala Fine, and S.O.M. (Superiore Old Marsala), G.D. (Garibaldi Dolce) and L.P. (London Particular) for Marsala Superiore. A vintage year on a Marsala refers to the year of the last concia, the blending and fortifying stage, rather than simply the harvest.

How to read a Marsala label

Put the pieces together and a bottle tells you three things:

1. Aging category: Fine, Superiore, Superiore Riserva, Vergine or Stravecchio. The rules require it on the same line as the word “Marsala” or the line right below.
2. Color: oro, ambra or rubino.
3. Sweetness: secco, semisecco or dolce.

A “Marsala Fine Ambra Secco”, for example, is a one-year-old, amber, dry Marsala: the classic bottle for chicken marsala. Wine Folly adds a simple warning: if a bottle sold as Marsala doesn’t come from Sicily, don’t trust it.

Cooking with Marsala

Chicken marsala and other savory dishes

Chicken marsala is the best-known Marsala dish: Wikipedia describes floured chicken breast braised in Marsala with butter, olive oil, mushrooms and seasonings. For savory cooking, Wine Folly recommends dry Marsala, which adds nutty, caramelized flavor to beef tenderloin, mushrooms, turkey and veal.

Which bottle to buy? Wine Folly says entry-level Marsala is best for cooking and suggests a Fine or Superiore in the oro or ambra style. Our pick for a pan sauce is a Fine Ambra Secco: inexpensive, dry, and with the caramel note people expect from the dish. If you are serving a glass of wine with the chicken, our guide to what wine goes with chicken covers the options.

Desserts

Sweet Marsala makes thick, very sweet sauces. Wine Folly lists zabaglione (the whipped egg-yolk custard) and some chicken and pork loin dishes; Wikipedia adds tiramisu and shortcake. We’d keep a dolce bottle for desserts only.

Avoid salted “cooking Marsala”

Some supermarket bottles labeled “cooking wine” are salted. Under the US rule for salted wine (27 CFR 24.215), salted wine must contain at least 1.5 grams of salt per 100 milliliters and is classed as “not for beverage use”. That salt goes into your sauce too. A real DOC Marsala Fine is usually a better choice, and you can drink what’s left. If you only have the salted kind, cut back on the salt in the recipe.

Tip: Dry Marsala can stand in for sweet in a dessert if you add a little sugar, but Wine Folly says the reverse generally doesn’t work: sweet Marsala makes a savory sauce taste cloying.

Marsala substitutes

You need	Use instead	Source
Dry or sweet Marsala	Madeira, the closest match	Wine Folly
Marsala, and you have no Madeira	1 part brandy simmered with 2 parts white wine, a little brown sugar and a pinch of salt	Wine Folly
Sweet Marsala	Dry Marsala plus a little sugar	Wine Folly (dry for sweet works, not the reverse)

Madeira is another heated, oxidized fortified wine; our guide to Madeira wine explains which style to buy for cooking. For the white wine in the brandy mix, any dry, unoaked white works; our guide to the best white wine for cooking has the details.

Drinking Marsala

Marsala isn’t only for the stove. Wine Folly suggests serving it slightly cool, around 55°F (13°C), and pairing it with asparagus, Brussels sprouts or chocolate. Wikipedia says drier Marsala is served chilled with cheeses such as aged Parmesan, Gorgonzola and Roquefort, or with fruit and pastries, while sweeter styles are served at room temperature as a dessert wine.

In our view, a Vergine or Superiore Riserva is the bottle to try if you want to judge Marsala as a wine rather than an ingredient. With at least 17.5% alcohol, it is strong, so pour small glasses.

How long Marsala lasts after opening

Marsala keeps far longer than table wine once opened, because it is fortified and already oxidized during aging. The sources give two figures:

• Wine Folly’s Marsala guide says an open bottle stays fresh for about a month, and suggests a cool, dark spot and a wine preserver to keep it longer.
• Wine Folly’s guide to opened wine says Madeira and Marsala are “the only wines that will keep forever when open”, because they are already oxidized.

We’d treat a month as the window for drinking and rely on the longer life for cooking: an older open bottle of Fine is still fine for a pan sauce. Our chart of how long wine lasts after opening covers every other style.

Good-value bottles

We don’t name specific Marsala bottles yet. Our value picks follow our rating method: a published critic score for a named wine and a US price checked at two or more stores, and we haven’t completed that check for a Marsala. When you shop, the label is your guide: Fine or Superiore, ambra or oro, secco for cooking; Vergine for sipping.

Wine is for adults of legal drinking age (21 in the US). Please drink responsibly.