Cava—More than just Spanish Champagne

Cava—More than just Spanish Champagne

By Sherwin Lao
The invention of the bubbly drink known as champagne was credited to an abbot priest from Hautvillers named Dom Perignon in the 17th century in Champagne region, France. This invention will later be known simply as ‘Methode Champenoise’, a method that requires two separate fermentations in the making of sparkling wines. The first fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks, and the second fermentation takes place in the bottle—the same bottle that will reach us, the consumers as finished product. The second fermentation is the one that creates the delicate bubbles and its longevity. All sparkling wines under this method go through a minimum disciplined period of nine months, starting from ‘racking’ (the process of very slowly tilting the bottle from level position to inverted position, without agitating the yeast), and ‘disgorging’ (when the used yeast is removed).The resulting sparkling wine is one that has much more complex nose and resulting bubbles that are not only finer, but also longer lasting. You can compare this when you try an Asti Spumante (from Piedmonte, Italy) side by side with a French Champagne, with the former being done using the simpler ‘Charmat Method’. The Asti you would notice, will have courser bubbles that will not survive long in the glass after pouring.
The champagne phenomenon was the inspiration behind Spanish Cava. In 1872, Don Josep Raventos, a descendant of Don Jaume Codorniu (founder of Codorniu—one of the largest Cava manufacturers in Spain), made the first recorded bottle of Cava in the Penedes region, Northeastern Spain. This was a creation done more for survival mode. At the time, the dreaded phylloxera plaque (louse-like insects that are preying on the vineyards) was destroying the vineyards of predominantly red varietals in Penedes. Being a huge vineyard owner in Penedes, Raventos like other vintners in the area, was desperate to salvage his vineyards, which were left with only white varietals. Penedes white wines were not popular then, and fetch very low prices. After learning of the success of the French champagne, Raventos cleverly studied the process and worked on its adaptability on Spanish white varietals. With much studies and resolute determination, Raventos pushed for the creation of the Spanish version of the champagne, same ‘Methode Champenoise’, using abundantly available indigenous Spanish white varietals Macabeo, Xarello and Parellada. This effected the birth of Spanish Cava. A decade later, Manuel Raventos, son of Don Josep, started the ambitious promotion of cava across Europe. And by 1888, the Codorniu Cavas would win its first of many gold medals and awards, establishing the much-needed foothold for Spanish Cavas outside of Spain. The rest as they say is history.
The Kripta Cava—one of the best cavas made from indigenous Spanish white varietals
Fast-forward to modern times, Spanish Cavas are on a consistent rise, with production volumes now reaching over 16 million cases (of 9 liter cases), second only to the French Champagne volume estimated at around 25 million cases. Spanish Cava export had more than doubled in the last 10 years, proving that the world is slowly embracing Spanish sparkling wine. And since the Spanish Cava Regulatory Council, has less stricter geographic coverage on its D.O. (Denominacion de Origen), the potential of cava in terms of expansion is still huge. The registered vineyards in Cava are also far bigger than those in Champagne. The wide area of Cava defies the usual definition of D.O., which restricts production to a particular demarcated area. In the case of Cava D.O., the name Cava denotes more of a quality standard specifically ‘Method Champenoise’, rather than a regional coverage. The Cava Regulatory Council has however permitted a list of areas to be considered a Cava D.O., largely in Catalonia, where majority is from Penedes, but also included those from Rioja, Navarra, Aragon, Extremadura, and Valencia. Penedes region became the natural bastion of this flourishing cava industry because of its origin. At present, the Penedes region accounts for 90 percent of all cavas made.
And unknown to many, cava exports had exceeded that of Rioja, Spain’s most prominent wine, in the last five years. Cava is surely creating its own identity as Cava, and not the misnomer Spanish Champagne.
A lot of the reason for the rise of cava is the price advantage over champagne. The commercial success of champagnes have made the French bubblies’ prices very high. For Spanish Cavas, they have to fight the perception of inferiority, especially having to work with relatively unknown Spanish varietals Macabeo, Xarello and Parellada. This only augurs well for us consumers, as cavas are still well priced and within our budget. While admittedly, the Spanish grapes are not close to their French counterparts, namely the most adored Chardonnay and the royally Pinot Noir, these varietals however still exude wonderful aromas, and nice white petal elements. Macabeo, is a wonderful inexpensive basic dry white wine that makes good solo La Mancha D.O. wines, and is also known as Viura, in your basic White Rioja D.O. wine. The Xarello is more recently making nice majority or solo wine in the Penedes region, and is one of those upcoming Spanish whites to look out for. Same case with Parellada. In the last decade, the Cava Regulatory Council has allowed Chardonnay (one of the three mainstays of Champagne) to be part of the Cava mix, and with a lot of lobbying done by big Cava Houses, Pinot Noir also became an approved varietal as of late. While I understand why major Cava Houses would do this, I just feel that cavas should still be more Spanish, in terms of adhering to its indigenous grapes. The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes are also bound to skyrocket the prices of cava, by creating more Cuvee Prestige French-style premium versions. It would really be interesting to see how all of these come out in the future. For now, I’ll take my regular cava and drink to my heart’s delight without hurting my pocket. Afterall, a Codorniu Classico Brut or a Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut is just less than one-fourth the value of a Moet Chandon.... And that is reason enough to celebrate!
Origin information: Manila Standard Today