1955 The U K B G Guide to Drinks (2nd edition revised)

WINES OF ITALY

Orvieto A delightful white wine from the Trebbiano grape. Not a fine wine but fresh and pleasant. From the town of Orvieto, a hilltop city in Central Italy in the province of Umbria. Capri A white wine from the Greco grape is made on the island of this name and on the mainland nearby. The white is the more popular type, being dry with a light golden colour. Falerno, Lachryma Christi (Tears of Christ) Similar to Capri wines, being made from the same grape, but grown around Mt. Vesuvius. Moscato di Siracusa, Malvasia di Lipari The best two dessert wines apart from Marsala. Marsala This is a dessert wine from the province of Trapani in Sicily, being a dark amber coloured wine of the sherry type. Its introductionintoEngland cameaboutby a man named John Woodhouse, who in 1773 introduced some Trapani wine which he had fortified with Brandy, in order to rival Madeira, the popular wine of that time. It was due to the success of this wine that he eventually stayed in Sicily to look after his interests there. Other people interested in Marsala were Benjamin Ingham, who settled in Palermo in 1805 and became a wine merchant in 1815. An Italian named Vincio Florio started business in Marsala in 1825. These three firms are still in business at the present day and are known as Florio & Co., Ingham Whittaker & Co. and Woodhouse & Co. In making Marsala, rnusts of the Catarratto and Inzoha varieties of grape are fermented dry. This is then sweet ened with a dark caramellized grape concentrate made by boiling grape juice down in open kettles. The sweetened wine is then fortified to about 17%-24% alcohol. It is treated in a similar manner to sherry,but is matured 189