Marco De Bartoli, one of the bravest wine pioneers of the past half century, dead

L

Levi Dalton

Levi Dalton
The Great Marco De Bartoli, a man who single handedly tried to revive an industry and a forgotten wine based solely on the sips of supernal old Marsala he had tried in his family's bodega as a child, has passed on.

He tried to push through initiatives to allow for higher quality wines from Sicilia, and for that he was locked out of his own winery for several years.

A former race car driver, who use his local fame to champion the cause of layered, nuanced, and unforgettable Marsala and Passito di Pantelleria. Marco ran two seperate wineries on two islands, and achieved the absolute high water mark within the respective styles at both.

When I think of heroic winemaking, and the sheer will to make something great in the face of absolute neglect, I think of Marco De Bartoli.

He was an ardent translator of Samperi, and the only real caretaker of one of the wine world's great legacies, Marsala.

Honestly, he was my hero.
 
A short blog post from Frank Cornelissen.

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I remember stumbling across a bottle of his Bukkuram when I was in Perugia in 1999. It was wonderful and I hunted high and low in the US for it, but couldn't find it then.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I remember stumbling across a bottle of his Bukkuram when I was in Perugia in 1999. It was wonderful and I hunted high and low in the US for it, but couldn't find it then.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that was good stuff. It was available here in the East Bay briefly at the ill-fated Enoteca Mastro.
 
My partner, Kevin McKenna, visited the estate in early February. LDM and De Baroli agreed to work together. Wine to come soon.
 
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