Marsala wine Marsala wine Marsala is a wine, dry or sweet, produced in the region surrounding the Italian city of Marsala in Sicily. Marsala first received "Denominazione di Origine Controllata" (DOC) status in 1969. The DOC status is equivalent to PDO: most countries limit the use of the term "Marsala" to those wines that come from the Marsala area, to which the European Union grants Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status. While the city's natives sometimes drink "vintage" Marsala, the wine produced for export is universally fortified similar to Port, Madeira and Sherry. Originally, this addition of alcohol was to ensure that
Fortified Sector of the Jura Fortified Sector of the Jura The Fortified Sector of the Jura ("Secteur Fortifiée du Jura") was the French military organization that in 1940 controlled the French frontier with Switzerland in the general area of Besançon. The area was lightly fortified, since the Swiss border was regarded as a low-risk frontier, save for the possibility of an advance from Germany through Switzerland into France. The Jura Mountains and the Doubs River presented natural barriers to invasion, allowing defenses to concentrate on a few points of potential access. The SF Jura was bordered on the east by the Fortified Sector of Montbéliard.