New Year’s Eve is just over but that doesn’t mean the Spanish will stop drinking cava. This sparkling wine made by the champagne method is drunk for almost any toast in Spain and is exported worldwide. Even if you’ve never heard of any other wine, you probably already heard about this one.

Cava is the Spanish alternative to French champagne but less expensive and less known in comparison to its French sister. It’s made by the same method which is used to make the famous Champagne that is named after the region in the north of France. As only wine from this specific area may be called Champagne, the Spanish gave it the name cava after the cellars in which the wine is produced.

You can find sparkling wine producers in eight different provinces in Spain but most of them are located in the area south of  Barcelona called Penedés. The provincial town Sant Sadurní d’Anoia is the heart of the national cava production and 75 % of all cavas produced in Spain come from this area.

It was there where Josep Raventós Fatjó of the Codorníu estate is said to have been the first in 1872 to produce wine made by this method. Surprised and happy with the result, he ordered a cool cellar or cava dug in order to produce more of the sparkling wine. A few years later, the family introduced their first bottles of cava to the public. The success came immediately and especially the high society loved this new tasty wine. Soon, the Spanish royal family ordered sparkling wine from the Codorníu estate and it became famous all over the country. Since then, cava succeeded worldwide and huge amounts, over two hundred million bottles, are now made for both domestic consumption and export.

Today, you can still visit the Codorníu winery and cellars in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia as well as the Gramona property at the same place. And of course, it’s a lot more fun to tour a winery in person than to just read about it.

The cava production begins in the vineyard. Usually the grapes are harvested early in the morning and a white wine is produced. In the following blending process each cava gets its individual character according to the combination of different grapes that are used. The most popular grape varieties in Spain are Macabeo, Xarello and Parellada. In the next step the licor de tiraje, a mixture of sugar and yeast, is added which causes the second fermentation process. The wine is put into bottles then and left for the second fermentation and aging. This lasts at least nine months and can be up to three or four years, for a special cava. During the second aging, called removido, the bottles are turned occasionally in order to bring the yeast sediments up into the bottles’ necks for removal. In some wineries this is still done by hand others do it by machine. After the bottle’s cap and the sediment are removed the wine is corked and labeled for sale.

In 1991 the European Union implemented legal specifications to make sure that there was a consistent quality standard for cava. You can find a four-pointed star on the base of the cork of any true cava. Like champagne, cava has different degrees of sweetness. The following are the six official types according to sugar content:
•    Extra Brut – 0-6 grams of sugar per liter, the driest of the cava
•    Brut – 0-15 grams of sugar per liter
•    Extra Seco – 12-20 grams of sugar per liter
•    Seco – 17-35 grams of sugar per liter
•    Semi-Seco – 33-50 grams of sugar per liter
•    Dulce – More than 50 grams of sugar per liter, the sweetest of the cava

The Spanish drink lots of cava especially during the holidays and it’s usually drunk after dinner and paired with Spanish sweets like turrón for example. The three brands you can find an almost every store and that are internationally known are Cordoníu, Segura Viudas and Freixenet.

Another great possibility to enjoy the different types of cava is to go to a traditional Xampanyeria that you can find in Barcelona or Jerez de la Frontera, close to Sevilla. There you can feel the atmosphere of the typical old Spanish bars and try all kind of sparkling wines at incredibly cheap prices in addition to a wide selection of tapas and bocadillos.

If you are going to have some friends around on the next weekend make sure to serve the cava as cold as possible. But don’t forget to get the bottles out of the freezer if you left them there otherwise they will explode and you will have a big mess (not my fault then!). As you are sipping your cava, make a toast as the Spanish do with a resounding ¡Salud!         

 

Blogger: Marie