MUSCAT GRAPES
Recently I lay awake suffering from one of my regular bouts of insomnia and in search of sleep I turned to my latest birthday present, a Kindle e book reader. Stored on my Kindle was the ‘The adventures of Brigadier Gerard’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – the celebrated author best known for his Sherlock Holmes tales.
Brigadier Gerard was a flamboyant, fictional French cavalry officer during the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century, who saw service in the campaigns of France, Spain Germany and Russia. Many of his adventures involved dashing cavalry charges, the wooing of fair maidens and dalliances with the voluptuous daughters of hostelry landlords. His self-inflated heroic deeds against the ferocious Spanish, British, Russian and Cossacks troops were recounted with Gerard (invariably!) in the starring role whilst fighting against overwhelming odds.
One of his stories recounts how, when sheltering from the Cossacks in a château cellar near Paris, he found himself unexpectedly surrounded by barrels and bottles of the finest wines – Chambertin from Burgundy, Graves from Bordeaux and the sweet wine of Alacant, as it was known, from Spain. Needless to say, the thirsty Gerard (understandably!) overindulged on the Alacant wine!
Alacant wine or, as it is nowadays more usually known, Mistella, was at the time a much prized sweet white wine from the Alicante region and was widely enjoyed in Britain and on the continent.
In the epic British Victorian tragic comedy of manners ´´The Forsyte Saga’ by John Galsworthy, the family traditionally met at a regular weekly gathering - known as the ‘Forsyte Change – to gossip, discuss their wealth and hear all the family news. The men would boast about the quality of their reserves of vintage port and fine Madeira whilst the women family members would enjoy their own favourite sweet wine – Spanish Mistella.
Mistella is an intense, golden coloured, sweet, fortified wine with aromas of honey and is made from the Moscatel or Muscat grape. Mistella is a speciality of the inland area around and to the north of Alicante in the Community of Valencia. As with port and Madeira, the natural sweet fermentation of Mistella wine is stopped by the addition of neutral grape spirit.
Served well chilled, Mistella is a superb desert wine or an accompaniment to good food. A cold, half bottle split between foie gras as a starter and then finished with a Spanish blue cheese or queso azul at the end of a meal makes a surprisingly good partnership for a rich meal. It also goes well as a topping – just a glass or so – on good vanilla ice cream.
The British appetite for and enjoyment of sweet Mistella wine has declined substantially since its popularity in the late Victorian and Edwardian years and reflects a wider change in trade between Valencia and Great Britain.
In fact, you may not be aware that Victorian entrepreneurs started to export coal from the United Kingdom to power the looms of the expanding textile industry of Alicante and in particular the inland areas of Alcoy, Muro de Alcoy and Cocentaina. Indeed, in 1882 the English company (the Alcoy y Gandia Rail and Harbour Co. Ltd.) was formed and soon trade between Valencia and Great Britain flourished. Keen to see the business work both ways (and, no doubt, for greater profit!) the company used the railway line and the returning ships to export citrus fruits, dried fruits and Mistella sweet wine back into the UK from the Valencian port of Gandia.
In fact, there had been a long tradition of exporting smaller quantities of dried fruits and sweet wine from the Valencian provinces from ports such as Denia and Alicante. This was to feed the ravenous British sweet appetite for dried fruit for plum puddings (actually made with dried fruit not plums), Christmas puddings and rich fruit cakes. In the early 19th century much of the Valencian export trade in sweet wine and dried fruit used smaller British trading ports such as Salcombe in Devon and Dumfries on the Solway coast of eastern Scotland. Many of these historic British ports have now closed, become silted up or are used only for leisure purposes.
In recent years Mistella wine has once again grown in popularity and can be found on the wine lists of some of the UK’s best merchants although sales lag well behind other branded sweet and fortified wines. In Spain it is still a very popular and widely available drink and remains one of the after dinner digestives of choice and is an increasingly popular aperitif.
At its best, when bought in half bottles (so as to keep fresh) and served well chilled, a bottle will keep for a day two in a refrigerator when opened. Although cheaper bottles of Mistella wine are available in supermarkets it is worth spending a little more for a better quality of wine. One of the best examples is Mistella Vall de Xalo retailing at around Euro 3.35 for 50 cl. This is available directly from the producers – the cooperative Bodegas Xalo on the outskirts of Jalon – some thirty minutes from the seaside towns of Javea, Denia and Calpe. There are also good family owned retail bodegas in Ondara and Denia, which stock a wide range of fine artisan, traditionally made Mistella wines.
So, this coming Christmas leave the dusty bottle of overpriced port on the shelf – and buy a good bottle of Spanish Mistella and raise a toast to the British and Valencians, their business acumen and also to the memory (and good taste in wine) of the fictitious Brigadier Gerard!
Salut mis buenos amigos!
Iain Henderson - Culture Spain
Iain lives in Spain, was a professional soldier and is a businessman who has lived in many different parts of the world. His lovely villa in Valencia, Spain is available for rent during the summer months.