Champagne Blend Muscat Sherry NV Spain Cataluna Penedes 750ml

The sparkling wines of Champagne have been revered by wine drinkers for hundreds of years, and even today they maintain their reputation for excellence of flavor and character, and are consistently associated with quality, decadence, and a cause for celebration. Their unique characteristics are partly due to the careful blending of a small number of selected grape varietals, most commonly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These grapes, blended in fairly equal quantities, give the wines of Champagne their wonderful flavors and aromas, with the Pinot Noir offering length and backbone, and the Chardonnay varietal giving its acidity and dry, biscuity nature. It isn't unusual to sometimes see Champagne labeled as 'blanc de blanc', meaning it is made using only Chardonnay varietal grapes, or 'blanc de noir', which is made solely with Pinot Noir.

One of the most widely grown and easily recognized wine grape varietals in the world is the Muscat, an ancient grape with an exceptional amount of versatility. For centuries, Muscat varietal grapes have been used all over Europe for the production of wonderfully fruity wines of many different shades and colors, which, with their strong 'grapey' flavor have come to be known as a quintessential fine wine grape. Their relatively high acidity also means they are ideal for the production of sparkling wines, and the fizzy Muscat wines of Italy are widely agreed to be amongst the best in the world. In more recent years, New World countries have shown a huge amount of flair when it comes to the Muscat grape, and have had plenty of success in allowing its natural and vibrant character to come through in the bottle.

Sherry is made in a unique way using the solera system, which blends fractional shares of young wine from oak barrels with older, more mature wines. Sherry has no vintage date because it is blended from a variety of years. Rare, old sherries can contain wine that dates back 25 to 50 years or more, the date the solera was begun. If a bottle has a date on it, it probably refers to the date the company was founded.

Most sherries begin with the Palomino grape, which enjoys a generally mild climate in and around the triad of towns known as the "Sherry Triangle" and grows in white, limestone and clay soils that look like beach sand. The Pedro Ximenez type of sweet sherry comes from the Pedro Ximenez grape.

Sherry is a "fortified" wine, which means that distilled, neutral spirits are used to fortify the sherry. The added liquor means that the final sherry will be 16 to 20 percent alcohol (higher than table wines) and that it will have a longer shelf life than table wines.

Ever since the Phoenicians and Romans brought their knowledge of vine cultivation to Spanish soils, the country's culture has grown alongside wine production, with wine being a vital part of Spanish identity and Spanish traditions. Each region of Spain has a wine quite distinct from the others, and it is produced by smallholders and families as much as it is by large companies and established wineries. From the relatively mild and lush regions of La Rioja to the arid plateaus that surround Madrid, grapes are grown in abundance for the now booming Spanish wine industry, and new laws and regulations have recently been put in place to keep the country's standards high. By combining traditional practices with modern technology, Spanish wineries are continuing to produce distinctive wines of great character, flavor and aroma, with the focus shifting in recent decades to quality over quantity.

The beautiful Spanish wine region of Catalunya has a history of viticulture which stretches back for over a thousand years, and has been influenced by a wide range of people who moved through the region, and brought their wine making skills and expertise with them. The region itself is a sizeable one, covering an area of sixty thousand hectares, and within this space there resides over two hundred individual wineries, ranging from small, independent and traditional ones to the larger, mass production bodegas known around the world. The terroir of Catalunya is varied, and ranges from being dry and arid, to more lush and green in the wetter parts of the region which are closer to the coast. This variation in terroir results in a fantastic range of grape varietals being grown, and a wide range of wine styles are produced within Catalunya.


The vital, active Penedes wine region is located in the province of Catalonia along the northeastern Mediterranean coast. Marine influence allows production of many different styles of wine in three separate elevations (Bajo, Medio and Superior, between 825 ft (250 m) and 2600 ft (500-800 m)). Beginning in the 1960s, the active Torres enterprise helped to revive the area, starting with experimental vineyard plantings of native, French and German varieties. They also introduced modern vinification methods and temperature-controlled fermentation in stainless steel, with the result of clean, dependable wines in a reasonable range of prices. Many Penedes red wines are well made and well priced. Common red varietals are Garnacha, Carinena and Monastrell, with some Tempranillo (here known as Ull de Llebre) and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Modern methods were also critical in sparking the region's cava (sparkling wine) industry centered around the Penedes town of San Sadurna de Noya. After old red vineyards were lost to phylloxera around the turn of the century, replanting featured white varieties that came to be most used for sparkling wines: Macabeo (Viura), Xarel-lo, Parellada, and increasingly, Chardonnay. Cavas are produced in huge quantities with automated production that allows the traditional methode champenoise, but these sparkling wines, described as earthy, mushroomy, or rubbery in taste, have distinctly different flavors from Champagne and may be an acquired taste. The best cavas contain more chardonnay and can have notes of pear, peach and mandarin orange. For still white wines, Parellada is favored, supplemented by Riesling, Muscat of Alexandria and Chardonnay.