Sicily
Est. 1833 
4 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Booking required 
Wine area
Western Sicily and Trapani
Marsala flatlands and the white-grape heartland for Grillo, Catarratto and Inzolia.
Cantine Florio
Cantine Florio sits on the seafront at Marsala, on the far western tip of Sicily. Vincenzo Florio built the cellars in 1833, and they still hold more than 3,000 casks of ageing Marsala. More than 50,000 people visit every year. The house is best known for its Marsala Vergine and Superiore Riserva, some of them aged for decades. Today it belongs to the Duca di Salaparuta group. Tastings can be booked online, and a guided wine-and-salt tour of Marsala and Trapani stops here.
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Wines from Cantine Florio
About Cantine Florio
Vincenzo Florio arrived in Marsala by sea from Calabria. In 1833 he bought a strip of beach between two English wine houses, Woodhouse and Ingham-Whitaker, and built his cellars there in tufa stone. Marsala itself was an English idea. John Woodhouse of Liverpool had shipped the local wine home in 1773 with brandy added. Florio was the first Italian to put an Italian name on the bottle. By 1853 his house made almost a quarter of all the Marsala in town.
The family fortune did not stop at wine. The Florios ran the first Italian shipping company, Navigazione Generale Italiana, put tuna in tins with oil, and founded the Targa Florio, the first Italian motor race. Their Marsala reached the royal courts of Savoy, Belgium, Romania and Bavaria, and those warrants are still printed on the label. The house later bought out Woodhouse and became the largest Marsala producer. Cinzano bought it in 1920. Since 1988 it has belonged to ILLVA Saronno, and it now sits inside the Duca di Salaparuta group, so the Florio family no longer runs it.
The cellars are the reason to come. Four aisles of tufa stone, separated by pointed arches, hold more than 3,000 oak casks and about six million litres of Marsala. Everything starts with Vino Florio, a strong unfiltered white made from Grillo grapes. Add spirit and years in oak and it becomes Marsala Vergine, which must age at least five years, or ten for a Riserva. Add cooked grape must as well and it becomes the amber Marsala Superiore, aged at least two years, or four for a Riserva. The two house classics are Baglio Florio, a Vergine Riserva, and Donna Franca, a Superiore Riserva Semisecco. VecchioFlorio, the house's everyday Superiore Secco, spends at least two years in cask. The oldest wines still sold go back to 1939.
Florio has welcomed visitors since 1992 and now sees more than 50,000 a year. Three guided tastings can be booked online. The Masterclass lasts 105 minutes and pairs five wines with small plates. The vertical tasting of Marsala Vergine takes 90 minutes. The Art of Time runs two and a half hours through the history of the house, with seven wines. Tastings are held in two rooms named after Donna Franca and Vincenzo Florio. A terrace looks over the sea, and the house also hosts dinners and weddings. A four-hour guided tour of the Florio story, Marsala and the salt pans towards Trapani also stops here.
Plate I · SICILY
Cantine Florio on the Sicily wine atlas
Winery
Cantine Florio
Marsala, Trapani · Western Sicily and Trapani
Denominations Produced
Grapes Used
Visit & Experiences
3 bookable experiences at Cantine Florio
3 tastings, checked by our editors. From €40.
Hosted by the estate3 available
Tasting & Tour
Masterclass
1h 45
From €40 per person
Since 1833, the Florio Cellars have housed the oak barrels where Florio Marsala wines age in seemingly immobile motion. These aisles capture the soul of the fortified wines aged within, thanks to the winery's unique geography and the diverse climates created by the varying distances from the sea of the oak barrels. This tour will delve deeper into and reveal the Florio Marsala production process. An act of creation, punctuated by oenological intuition and human sensitivity, aimed at capturing the perfect time for the grapes to ripen, the perfect time for falling in love—that is, the encounter between alcohol and wine that creates Marsala—and the perfect time for the wine to evolve in oak. Guided tasting of a Florio wine and four Marsala wines from the New Geography line, along with five small food pairings: Florio wine Marsala Vergine Riserva CLASSIC Marsala Vergine Riserva PREMIUM Marsala Superiore Riserva Semi-Dry CLASSIC Marsala Superiore Riserva Semi-Dry PREMIUM
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via Winalist
Tasting & Tour
The Art of Time
2h 30
From €120 per person
Since 1833, the Florio Winery has been a symbol of the high-quality Marsala production chain. A winery steeped in Italian history and the Florio family, renowned worldwide for their remarkable entrepreneurial skills. This tour will captivate you with the history of our winery, highlighting all the historical and cultural milestones that have made Florio Marsala famous and the evolution of their creative production chain. Guided tasting of 7 wines and 7 small food pairings: Florio Wine Marsala Vergine Riserva CLASSIC Marsala Vergine Riserva PREMIUM Marsala Vergine Riserva EXCLUSIVE Marsala Superiore Riserva Semi-Dry CLASSIC Marsala Superiore Riserva Semi-Dry PREMIUM Marsala Superiore Riserva Semi-Dry EXCLUSIVE
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via Winalist
Tasting
Vertical tasting of Vergine
1h 30
From €80 per person
Since 1833, the Florio Winery has been a symbol of the high-quality Marsala production chain. A winery steeped in Italian history and the Florio family, renowned worldwide for their remarkable entrepreneurial skills. This tour will captivate you with a focus on the world of Marsala Vergine, which you will taste in all its evolutionary forms. Tasting with 4 small food pairings: Florio Wine Marsala Vergine Riserva CLASSIC with fresh, agro-marine aromas, enhanced by notes of broom and yellow flowers. Marsala Vergine Riserva PREMIUM, dry and precise on the palate, lesser-known but highly intriguing thanks to its elegance; Marsala Vergine Riserva EXCLUSIVE with evolved notes of menthol, black tea, and licorice, while on the palate it offers chestnut honey, roots, and an extraordinary persistence.
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via Winalist
Tours that visit Cantine FlorioRun by a tour operator. The estate is one stop of several. Booking completes on the platform that runs the tour.
the Florio family, wine and salt, Marsala-Trapani (all inclusive)
Cantine Florio · stop 1 of 4 · 90 min
4 hours
From €170 per person
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Plan your visit
Via Vincenzo Florio, 1, 91025 Marsala, Trapani (Sicilia)
What Cantine Florio makes
Cantine Florio's current bottle selection is led by Marsala DOC. The clearest grape signal comes from Grillo and Malvasia di Lipari.
Denominations
Key grapes
Common questions
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Yes. The cellars in Marsala are open to visitors, and more than 50,000 people come every year. Three guided tastings can be booked online, and groups can arrange private events through the hospitality office at [email protected].
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