Description
Marsala is a blended, fortified wine of Sicilian origin, aged for 2 years or more in casks. Marsala is a dark amber color with a rich, smoky flavor, and varies from sweet to dry. Marsala is a rich syrupy golden colour. Marsala is of a very sweet dessert wine.
The typical Marsala bottles made the wine seem like medicine. People found that getting Marsala was less risky than other types of wine. While not as popular now, it is still used quite frequently as a cooking wine in Italian dishes. Marsala uses the White skin/berry grapes as well as Dark red skin/berry grapes.

How to Select
When you go to buy wine, deciding which bottle to purchase can be a daunting task. This is particularly true if you aren't familiar with wine, or don't have much experience with the beverage. When you go to buy wine, go to the store prepared with a list of several wines and their corresponding ratings. If saving money is something that you're interested in, choose the lowest priced with the highest acceptable rating. Also, talk to the people who work at the store. They're around the stuff all day, and most times can give you some good insight as to which wines to try.
The quality of wine is measured in four essential qualities namely- appearance, fragrance, sensation and finish. A wine that looks more presentable has a pleasing effect. Which is savoury gives a lasting thought.

Culinary Uses
· It is used as a dessert wine and in many desserts traditionally served between the first and second courses.
· It is now also served, chilled, with Parmesan, Gorgonzola, Roquefort and other, spicy cheeses.
· Marsala is also delicious after dinner, with cookies, over ice cream....even with fruitcake!
· Marsala wine is frequently used in cooking, and is especially prevalent in Italian restaurants
· A typical Marsala sauce, for example, involves reducing the wine almost to syrup with onions or shallots, then adding mushrooms and herbs.
· Marsala is also used in some risotto recipes, and is used to produce rich Italian desserts such as zabaglione and shortcake

How to Store
Marsala is a fortified wine - this means they add hard alcohol to it. This also means that, just like you can keep opened (sealed) bottles of vodka and rum on your shelves, you can also keep an opened bottle of marsala around. Yes, the flavor will gently deteriorate over time, but it won't go from wonderful tasting to awful tasting in 3 days. You probably won't even notice the flavor difference after a month or two.