What is mistela?

At Padró i Família we use mistela as the base wine for our Padró & Co. Blanco Reserva. But not many people know what mistela is, especially among the younger population who do not come across it very often. Mistela is not exactly a wine, so what then is it? During the grape harvest, the winery picks out some of its vineyards to provide the grapes for its mistela. The grapes selected will always be the white grapes of the Macabeo (Viura) and Xarel·lo varieties. These grapes are allowed to ripen on the wine for longer than would be necessary for grapes that are to be used for making wine. What we achieve by doing this is a higher sugar content in the grapes that we are going to use for making our mistela. The grapes are pressed on the same day they are harvested, and a little wine alcohol is added to the grape must extracted in order to prevent the start of fermentation. This process is known as mutage and what it does is ensure that all the natural sugars in the grapes are preserved intact. We then store the mistela for about three months in stainless steel tanks, after which, we move it into wood. The mistela rests for a minimum of one year in the 2,500-litre acacia foudres that we have in the winery. Our mistela is then ready to be blended together with the special herb infusions we have been preparing simultaneously for use in our vermouths.