Florio is an institution more than a winery. It is the heritage of a memorable national enterprise of an Italian family that made the history of the nation. The Florio family were originally from Calabria but they developed their business in Sicily and from spice traders they became entrepreneurs in many sectors including the oenological one. In Marsala they were the first Italians to dedicate themselves to the production of the typical fortified wine, whose bottling and trade was exclusively in the hands of the British until 1833, when Vincenzo Florio founded his winery next to that of the Ingham and Woodhouse, in front of the sea ​​of ​​Marsala in the province of Trapani. The success of Florio’s Marsala wines came within a few decades and sales were facilitated by the fact that Florio had their own commercial fleet. The cellar is a fascinating architectural work, with huge spaces to hold a large number of barrels and store wines for aging without problems.
In 1924 Florio was acquired by Cinzano. The cellar was damaged by the bombings of World War II and was slowly rebuilt; fortunately some Marsala of the 1941 vintage could be saved from bombing. In recent times, Florio has become part of the Duca di Salaparuta group and in addition to fortified Marsala wines, it has also started making sweet wines such as Malvasia delle Lipari and Passito di Pantelleria. The Florio cellars have been restored and are now open to the public for outstaning wine tourism experiences.