CAVA
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Cava wines come principally from Region of Cataluña, and in particular from de the province of Barcelona, but they can also be made elsewhere inspain where vineyards have been aproved by the authorities. Then non-Catalan Cava areas are in the Regions of Aragon, Navarra, La Rioja and País Vasco and both the individual vineyards sites and both the winemaking method are controlled under the wine law.
The first Cava was produced in the province of Barcelona in 1872. Barcelona, then as now, was one of the great cultural capitals of the world and the city's restaurants and bars had an unquenchable thirst for good sparkling wine, so there was already market. Cava is made by the 'Método tradicional', like all the world's best sparkling wines, but is unique in its choice of grapes and individualistic sty1e. The wine is made from rigorously-selected grapes, often picked in the very early morning to preserve them from the autumn heat, and pressed very delicately to. obtain only the best and ripest juice. This is then cool-fermented in stainless steel vessels and allowed to rest before being tested for quality and selected for blending. The final blend is assembed and the wine is bottled and put into racks for a minimum of nine months though often much longer. During this period a second fermentation takes place inside the bottle, putting the sparkle into the wine and leaving a deposit of dead yeast. This is removed by a careful process once the ageing period ¡s over, and the bottled is topped-up with wine from the same batch, corked and sealed.
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varieties White Macabeo (Viura) Xarel·lo Parellada Subirat Chardonnay Black
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The best, Cava grapes ternd to be grown in limestone-rich soils at altitudes of between 600ft
and 1,500ft, with better grapes coming from high vineyards. T'hese conditions are to be found wherever Cava is made, but especially around the town of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia in the
province of Barcelona.
Climate
Catalan vineyards have a more
Mediterranean climate than Cava vineyards inland,
although altitude is often a compensatory factor: higher
vineyards on the coast can be as cool as lower
vineyards in the interior.
Grapes
Cava is made from three
principal grapes, the Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada,
which may
be mixed in any combination from 33-33-33 to 50-30-20 to
achieve the winemaker's desired
result. Chardonnay is also gronw in Cataluña and there
are Cavas wich are up to 90% Chardonnay. Cava Rosé or
Rosado(pink) is made from Garnacha and Monastrell.
Cava made otside Cataluña is likely to be 100% Macabeo,
wich is known in the rest of Spain as the Viura.
Wines
Because Cava wineries normally use
a combination of their own and bought-in grapes from
contract growers, Cava wines tend to owe more to the
'house style' of the winery than the particular locality
in which it is located. Officially, there are only two
classifications of wine - white and pink, but the white
is also classified according to its sweetness or dryness.
The very driest Cava is called Extra Brut, and then it
progresses through Brut, Extra Seco, Seco, Semi-Seco to
Dulce, which is a rare and very sweet version. The most
widely available in export markets are the Brut and
Semi-Seco styles. Although the wine must spend
a minimum of nine months in the cellar, the best Cavas
tend to be two or three years old before release.
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