What Is Marsala Wine?

A lot of folks like wine. But some people really like wine. You know those friends who always want to order a bottle for the table. They smell the cork, and do the little sip thingie with the sommelier. They always say things like, “I detect a hint of oak.” Meanwhile, the rest of the wine drinking population is cool with some Two Buck Chuck. 

For those of you who don’t know a ton about wine, other than that you like to drink it, you may be surprised to learn that there’s a type of wine called marsala. I know, right? I thought it was just a way to prepare chicken. But it turns out that the marsala in chicken marsala is referring to wine! So, what is marsala wine? What is in marsala wine? Is marsala wine red or white? Does marsala wine go bad? Can you drink marsala wine? Let’s wind down and talk about marsala wine!

What is marsala wine?

Marsala wine is a fortified wine, produced around the Marsala region of Sicily. Marsala wine has many cooking applications and is used to make a rich, nutty sauce. What exactly is fortified wine? It’s basically wine that has some extra alcohol added to it. To make fortified wine, a distilled spirit is added to regular wine. Usually, that distilled spirit is brandy. Other examples of fortified wine are port, sherry, and madeira. Some people confuse marsala with madeira since they’re both fortified wines with similar names. But madeira is Portuguese. Marsala wine has PDO status, or Protected designation of origin. That means the European Union makes sure only the real stuff from the Marsala region is labeled as marsala. 

What is in marsala wine?

Okay, so it’s fortified wine from Marsala but what’s in marsala wine? How do you make Marsala wine? Is it a red or a white? Slow down there, wino. I’m getting to it. Marsala wine can be several different colors and sweetness levels. A lot of the marsala wine we see in U.S. grocery stores looks like a white wine, but there is also red Marsala. It just depends on the grapes used. There’s ambra, or amber, made with white grapes like Grillo, Cattaroto, and Inzolia. There’s oro, or gold, made with those same grapes but aged longer. And there’s rubino, or ruby, made with a combination of red grapes and about 30 percent white grapes. Marsala wine can also be classified by how long it’s aged, from “fine”o—aged under a year—to “stravecchio”—aged over 10 years.

Can you drink marsala wine?

Sure, it’s mostly known as a cooking wine, but you can definitely drink marsala wine as well! And I don’t mean taking an occasional slug from the bottle while you’re making some chicken marsala. You can legit sip on this stuff. The younger wines are better for cooking, while the older stuff is great as an aperitif or dessert wine, depending on if you get a dry or sweet variety. 

Just make sure you’re drinking a reasonably freshly-opened bottle of marsala. While fortified wines can last a lot longer than regular wines once they’re opened, they can still go bad. An opened bottle of marsala can last about four to six months. You can store an unopened bottle for several years as long as it’s in a cool dry place and not, like, in the back seat of your car. 

Where to find marsala wine in the grocery store?  

You can usually find marsala wine in the wine or liquor section of your local grocery store. Make a marsala evening by having a marsala aperitif, then eating chicken marsala, and finish it off with a sweet dessert marsala.