FLORIO

The name of the Florio family has always been linked to the production of Marsala wines and is the symbol of Sicily itself.The fortune of the Florio family began when Vincenzo succeeded his father's business: it was a shop that traded spices and colonial products but above all quinine, a drug for the treatment of malaria; in the meantime, however, his uncle Paolo had understood the need to broaden the areas of interest of the Family and therefore began to cherish the idea of renting tuna traps: it was precisely this far-sighted vision that made the Florio family one of the richest Italian families , the undisputed protagonist of the Belle Epoque period between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1832 Vincenzo bought land located near Marsala by building the Florio Cellars in the Anglo-Saxon style, a typical practice in that particular historical moment; the structure aroused a lot of clamor and admiration and made the city of Marsala one of the main industrial centers of the island; from that moment on, Marsala Florio became synonymous with quality, further increasing the fame of the same family. In 1861 steam engines were used in such a way as to increase production and reach 3000 barrels a year and the cellar was also enlarged with barrels on three rows aligned one on top of the other.At the beginning of the twentieth century, SAVI was born, Italian Anonima Vinicola company, established by the Florio family and other Marsala traders and in 1915 what is still the most famous marsala in the world, the "VecchioFlorio": a product obtained from a 3-year refinement in Slavonian oak barrel characterized by an unmistakable color. Following the damage suffered by the bombings of the Second World War, a slow and tiring reconstruction of the cellars occured: shortly thereafter Florio will make one after the other sensational products such as the "Terre Arse", the "Targa Riserva 1840" up to the first liqueur Moscato, the "Morsi di Luce".Parallel to the continuous expansion and renovation of the cellars took place the acquisition of some wine estates such as Suor Marchesa, Vajasindi and Risignolo, respectively in Riesi, Castiglione di Sicilia and Salemi.In 2013 on the occasion of the 180th anniversary of its foundation, CENTOTTANTA was created, a limited edition produced with carefully selected Zibibbo grapes and matured in small kegs for three years: the product was made with a limited number of 180 bottles, a tangible sign of originality and prestige still enjoyed today by the products of the Florio Cellars.