Ariadna called last Saturday morning to invite me to watch her family make some "house wine". Many grape growers in Montsant make wine for personal use. Marc Tost has been studying winemaking and has had some success. This year he's making garnatxa blanca, syrah and garnatxa negre. His grandfather, Miquel, has a cellar under the house and has been making wine for over sixty years. You might say it's a family tradition!
Most families who make wine also make mistela and vi ranci. Both styles are made using the solera method (look it up in Wikipedia). Mistela is sweet and vi ranci is dry. When well made, they resemble the finest sherries. A few wineries around here offer these styles of wine for sale but, in my usually correct opinion, none of them compare to what the families make for themselves.
Miquel's mistela is one of the greatest dessert wines I've ever tasted and, certainly, the best mistela. It has depth, balance, richness and complexity. He's been carefully tending that fifteen liter barrel for sixty years. I hope to taste it at least one more time before I'm beamed up.
It was good to see Marc working with his fruit. The grapes looked really good and Marc and his family were careful with the processing. Xavi is Ariadna's novio and is new to the wine business. His family makes olive oil so this is a good match for him in more ways than one!
Thanks again for inviting me!
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