First; I have to admit that I know absolutely nothing of any consequence about wine and I rarely drink alcohol of any kind.

There are a few wines that I quite like, mainly some German white wines and some sweet sherries.

Anyway, I hope that someone here can help me with something.

About twenty years ago my husband and I went to the Costa Brava in Spain. One of our excursions was to a bodega, where we could taste several wines direct from oak kegs.

I found one that was really delicious. I was told that it was muscatel. We bought some and I intended to get more. But I have never seen it since.

I have bought Spanish muscatel wines from Sainsburys: Muscatel de Valencia, Muscatel Oro. But as the name suggests, these are golden in colour. The one I found in Spain was a deep rich red. It was heavy, rich and sweet. It was rather like a sweet sherry.

I am assuming that, as with sherry, perhaps the drier ones are light in colour and the sweeter ones are deep red.

Can anyone tell me, please, what it is I am looking for?

Thank you.

I'm afraid you must have mis-understood something. Muscatel is by definition a wine made from the Muscat grape. And the Muscat grape is most definitely a white grape. The only kind of wine it can make is a white wine. Sure, the white wine can be a late harvest, sweet wine - or it can be a light, sparkling wine such as in Asti Spumanti. But it can't make a red wine :) I looked up Costa Brava and its primary wine is made from Cariñena - a red grape. I realize that doesn't sound like Muscatel, but it seems more likely to be what you drank ...?

Thank you Lisa. I had had a look at Muscat grapes on the Internet and couldn't find any red ones, so I'm not completely surprised by your answer. They definitely called it Muscatel, though. I made a point of finding out about it. I suppose it could have been Cariñena, but the drinks available were mainly sherries, even though it was the Costa Brava, so I think it might have been a type of sherry, after all. The problem now is that I have no idea which one. I have, though, discovered that I quite like Muscatel wine, even if it isn't the one I found that day.

OK, deep red, heavy sweet sounds like a sherry, not like a wine. Are you sure it wasn't a Manzanilla sherry? Do you know what winery you were at? It would be pretty inconceivable that a winery would call a sherry a "Muscatel" ... Maybe they misunderstood your question?

I suppose there could have been misunderstanding on both sides.

I'm not completely sure that the people who showed us round were actually belonging to the winery, either. They may not have known what they were talking about!

So, yes, I think it must have been a very sweet, rich dark red sherry.

Wouldn't Manzanilla be too light and dry? I think I had some when I was in Seville.

There are red muscat grapes, but I suspect this could be a wine made from dried grapes.

Thanks both.
It looks like I shall never know.
What a shame!

http://www.nutribase.com/beverage.shtml

Muscatel - A strong sweet wine made from the muscat grape. It is a rich, sweet dessert wine. Muscatel can be amber, golden, red, white. It is sometimes sparkling.

looks like you may have been right all along, pdm!

Oh, good. Thanks Jo.

Now I just have to find some. It sounds as if it could be something of a rarity!

try looking on
http://www.wine-searcher.com/