JOHN WOODHOUSE Jr.
Having landed in Marsala in 1787, John Woodhouse Jr decided to settle in the Sicilian town and, with his brothers William and Samuel and the collaboration of his father, specialised in producing and trading wine. By doing so, he effectively jump-started the Marsala wine industry.
In 1792, they rented the old tuna fishery, “Tonnara del Cannizzo”, not far from the old port, known as “porto delle Tartane”, and later bought the property and transformed it into a winery.
It is said that “…he travelled modestly, on a donkey, all around the Marsala region and personally chose the best wines for the recently established business, … “.
He didn’t speak the Sicilian dialect, but he was a sociable kind of guy and having heard of the scrupulous care he put into selecting wine, local farmers went to visit him at his winery.
To ensure sufficient wine for their business, they gave farmers an advance a few months before the harvest and paid the outstanding amount afterwards.
They were exempt from paying trade tariffs and in exchange they built public works such as the stone paving of what today is Via Garibaldi, they redeveloped a number of country roads and partially contributed to building the port, which benefited the wine loading and unloading operations and significantly reduced their costs.
A decisive factor in their success was a large order of “Marsala” wine (500 pipes per year) placed by Lord Nelson for the British fleet in 1798 and again in 1800.
John Woodhouse Jr never married, he died on 25 August 1826 at the age of 58 and was buried in the purpose-built graveyard next to the winery. The business passed on to his brothers Samuel and William and then to their children who due to the crisis in the industry sold the company which was eventually taken over by Cinzano in 1929.
During the second World War, the winery was severely damaged in a bombing raid on 11 May 1943 and the buildings were sold to private owners. The wine’s success attracted many other English merchant families to the town of Marsala, including the Ingham/Whitaker family, the Corletts, the Lee Browns, the Clarksons, the Woods, the Paynes and the Hopps.