Catalan sparkling achievement: Cava

Sometimes happiness comes from new catastrophes. A disaster in any case owe a friend of the sparkling wine consumption, the experts is now almost equal to Champagne: Spanish Cava, dry white sparkling wine from Catalonia.

The accident, which paved the way to the Cava was the phylloxera. The pests invaded at the end of the 19th Century, northern Spain, destroying vineyards, which formerly thrived on reds. Took advantage of the clear cutting of Catalonia winemakers to start anew: You wooded mountains with their white wine grapes, especially with Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel.lo, the variety trio that forms the mainstay of the Cava industry.


“Cavas are made only after the so-called traditional method,” explains Christine Schneider of the Information Office in Wiesbaden Freixenet, one of the most famous producers. As the products pass from the Champagne region in France, they elaborate in the bottle – and not in the tank – a second fermentation on the yeast, forming carbonic acid.

Describes the typical taste Jancis Robinson, the new wine critic star from England, thus: “rustic, rather sweet and lemony, with a stronger bead game than champagne.” Estimates Ulrich Sautter of the Hamburg-based magazine ‘wine gourmet’ on Cavas the ” expressive power, robustness and complexity. ” Sautter and Robinson hold for the Spaniard, “a good and cheap alternative” to the French. However, the English wine specialist emphasized that there are certain “champagne moments” in life, which is just such a wine from France, “unbeatable”.

In the trade are semi-dry or dry cava, which were at least nine months on the yeast to have been for five euros. Even drier, as “brut” expanded with a 24 month shelf life, they usually cost from seven euros. The comparatively low price is not only happy bargain hunters. It reduces the risk of being disappointed, because it ensures a rapid distribution of goods.

“In bottle fermented sparkling wines generally react sensitively to heat and light,” says Sautter. If some expensive drops like lead on the shelf of the dealer is that he was after six or nine months, often no longer edible. The result for the consumer advice: Either he drinks his sparkling wine at home quickly, or he should be in a dark place without temperature fluctuations superimposed.

At best perhaps in the cellar. And “cellar” is the translation of “cava”, says Christine Schneider. The name was introduced in 1970 as an alternative to the Spanish “Champaña” in order to keep the complaints litigious French wine industry from the neck.

According to the wine writers Richard Mayson and Victor de la Serna (“The Oxford Encyclopedia of Wine”) produced José Raventos, head of the family Cordoniu, in 1872 the first bottles of Spanish sparkling wine for the champagne method in San Sadurni de Noya. The small town is located southwest of Barcelona and is now surrounded by large wineries. The soils are calcareous, the temperatures moderate. In 1889 the young Pedro Ferrer Bosch was followed with the establishment of Freixenet, said, “Fräschenett”. The name comes – because of the ash trees that surrounded the estate – the Catalan “la Freixa,” the ash.

Cordoniu Freixenet and have become two of the largest global producer of sparkling wine. Amounts to 221 million bottles, according to the cava Control Council in Vilafranca del Penedès now the annual output of all producers. This is almost comparable to the emissions of champagne. 53 million bottles went to Germany in 2004 – more than anywhere else outside of Spain. Anyone who thinks Cavas always come from Catalonia, but has only 95 percent right. There are also some places in Valencia, Aragon, Navarre, the Basque Country and La Rioja, the grapes for Cavas may produce.

That under the increasing amount of the quality suffers, not feared Jancis Robinson: “. There is a considerable amount of good in the Penedès vineyards, which can be used for the production of Cava” also monitored since 1993, a state Control over the varietals used and the traditional production. Only those who play by the rules, do the seal “Cava” stick to the caps.

In Spain, Catalonia is sparkling achievement in winter, a festive drink. Cavas beheads one there at Christmas and New Year and they prefer cold drinks – like all the best sparkling wines between six and eight degrees. In Germany, however, Cavas rounder, which adheres to a more summery Mediterranean image. “To speak of a typical product of southern joie de vivre, would vigorously oppose the Catalans themselves,” says Ulrich Sautter. Catalonia is a sometimes cool climate region, the “cold” north of Spain.

Cavas Wine critic Jancis Robinson finds “a little too sweet and sparkling,” to use them as a companion to food, and therefore they preferred to drink. Sautter they can imagine because of their robustness but also in the flavor “brut” well to Mediterranean cuisine: “You fit the tomatoes, olives and garlic, and they are ideal for fish and shellfish.”