Marco De Bartoli’s estate is near Marsala, in western Sicily. Like his father before him, De Bartoli’s life has been centered around winemaking with traditional Sicilian grapes. The native white grape Grillo is the grape that has traditionally been used for the fortified wine called Marsala, though innovative producers such as Marco De Bartoli are also now making 100% Grillo table wines, which are dry white wines noted for citrus, apple and pineapple notes. In Sicily, Grillo is frequently paired with strong-tasting seafood, such as anchovies. The estate also makes Marsala, and a red table wine made of 100% Pignatello, a traditional Western Sicilian grape. The estate also makes sparkling wines and several “passito” style wines, meaning wines made with grapes that are sun dried before they are crushed, giving the resulting wines a rich, raisiny character. An interesting note is that the name of the passito wine Bukkuram means "father of the vineyard" in ancient Arabic. Bukkuram was also the name of the region where De Bartoli farms grapes for his Bukkuram wines. Bukkuram wines are made with Zibibbo grapes, another Sicilian native.