6 comments

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  John Barrass

  3 years ago

  Grape varieties for Cava in the Penedès have long been a battlefield. Xarel.lo flowering sometimes fails, and that year's Cava blend can be very sour - a good argument for the better producers to start labelling by vintage, an initiative which the sector as a whole has resisted. The consequence is often too much added sweet liqueur at the bottling stage and an almighty hangover.
  
  
  
  
  Codorniu has made efforts to raise quality by promising farmers a guaranteed price if they replant with Chardonnay. Compare Codorniu's majority-Chardonnay "Ana" brand with a ten-euro traditional M-X-P blend, and it's smoother, fruitier and less cardboardy. Codorniu's old enemy is the commercial giant Freixenet, who have a reputation for under-ageing their Cava for faster cash-flow (and avoiding the fines for so doing). Freixenet has attempted to block initiatives to use different grape varieties in Cava, prompting the Regulatory Council to dictate, for instance, Pinot Noir use only in rosé Cava: a nonsense except that it is Freixenet's competitors who want to forge ahead with experimenting. One unfortunate result is that UK buyers tutored in cheap Freixenet resist paying good money for decent Cava.
  
  reply
• 

  John Barrass

  3 years ago

  Grape varieties for Cava in the Penedès have long been a battlefield. Xarel.lo flowering sometimes fails, and that year's Cava blend can be very sour - a good argument for the better producers to start labelling by vintage, an initiative which the sector as a whole has resisted. The consequence is often too much added sweet liqueur at the bottling stage and an almighty hangover.
  Codorniu has made efforts to raise quality by promising farmers a guaranteed price if they replant with Chardonnay. Compare Codorniu's majority-Chardonnay "Ana" brand with a ten-euro traditional M-X-P blend, and it's smoother, fruitier and less cardboardy. Codorniu's old enemy is the commercial giant Freixenet, who have a reputation for under-ageing their Cava for faster cash-flow (and avoiding the fines for so doing). Freixenet has attempted to block initiatives to use different grape varieties in Cava, prompting the Regulatory Council to dictate, for instance, Pinot Noir use only in rosé Cava: a nonsense except that it is Freixenet's competitors who want to forge ahead with experimenting. One unfortunate result is that UK buyers tutored in cheap Freixenet resist paying good money for decent Cava.
  reply
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  Steven Tolliver

  3 years ago

  One interesting footnote is that Spanish production of tradition method sparkling wines was triggered by the Phyloxera plague of the late nineteenth century. The Champagne region was decimated and French negotiants went south in search of a replacement product, which they actually labeled as Champagne. With the advent of European Union regulations, the Spanish product could no longer legally be called Champagne, hence the creation of the name Cava, but like anywhere else many people not in the trade still use Champagne as a catch-all term for bubbly.
  
  
  Question: Isn't the Jerez D.O. also akin to the Cava D.O. in that it limits wineries to production of a particular category of wines, in this case Generosos, or fortified wines?
  
  reply
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  Steven Tolliver

  3 years ago

  One interesting footnote is that Spanish production of tradition method sparkling wines was triggered by the Phyloxera plague of the late nineteenth century. The Champagne region was decimated and French negotiants went south in search of a replacement product, which they actually labeled as Champagne. With the advent of European Union regulations, the Spanish product could no longer legally be called Champagne, hence the creation of the name Cava, but like anywhere else many people not in the trade still use Champagne as a catch-all term for bubbly.
  
  Question: Isn't the Jerez D.O. also akin to the Cava D.O. in that it limits wineries to production of a particular category of wines, in this case Generosos, or fortified wines?
  reply
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  Ryan

  3 years ago

  Yes and no, there is a requirement for the production methods(solera style aging), but unlike Cava they also have a set physical area they must remain within. Hypotheticaly, anyone can argue that Cava can be made in their region. If the Consejo agrees they can be awarded DO status. In Jerez there is a concept of terroir that indicates that the soil(albariza) and the climate are unique to the DO.
  
  
  Thanks for the history on Cava, I read that once before, I just wonder if they'll ever call a sparkler Cava as a default?
  
  reply
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  Ryan Opaz

  3 years ago

  Yes and no, there is a requirement for the production methods(solera style aging), but unlike Cava they also have a set physical area they must remain within. Hypotheticaly, anyone can argue that Cava can be made in their region. If the Consejo agrees they can be awarded DO status. In Jerez there is a concept of terroir that indicates that the soil(albariza) and the climate are unique to the DO.
  
  Thanks for the history on Cava, I read that once before, I just wonder if they'll ever call a sparkler Cava as a default?
  reply