Cava, A Brief History
Cava, A Brief History
Cava (pronounced: caw-vuh) Birthplace: San Sadurní d’Anoia, Alt-Penedes
Alright, here's the 'sitch. Cava (Catalan word for cave) comes from Spain, but it is modeled off of traditional French champagne producing methods. The wines come from Catalonia which is this fiercely independent region in Spain about a half hour away from Barcelona. Cava can be white or rosé (but only about 1% of Cavas are rosé). They can range from extremely dry (Labeled: Brut Nature) to super sweet (Labeled: Sweet).
There once was a guy named Don José Raventós de Codorníu, we're going to just call him José. José was a winemaker in Spain who was simply ravenous to find new wines to grow. So he packed up one day (sometime in the 1860's) to travel through France. During this expedition he stumbled across champagne and it was game over. José started making Cava in the méthode champenoise in 1872 from indigenous Spanish grapes.
In more recent history, Cava producers in Catalonia pioneered a machine called a gyropallet. Invented by two french dudes in the late 1960's, the gyropallet takes the place of a human remueur. During secondary fermentation, the remueur is responsible for turning individual bottles a quarter of an inch everyday in order to get the spent yeast cells (called "lees") into the neck of the bottle of the sparkling wine. The gyropallet can achieve this on a number of bottles at once.
Major grapes of Cava: Parellado (pronounced: par-a-yado) Xarel-lo (pronounced: ex-ar-lo) Macabeo: (pronounced: maka-bay-oh)
Other grapes allowed: Subirat (pronounced: sue-beer-rawt) aka Malvasia (pronounced: mal-vay-shia), Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Monastrell, Trepat
Regions: Aragón, Basque Country, Catalonia (Catalunya), Extremadura, La Rioja, Navarra, Valencia
Oh PS: José was the owner of this small (at the time) wine making house called Codorníu. Hence the name: Don José Raventós de Codorníu. Well Codorníu is now the second largest producer of Cava in the world (second only to Freixenet... think the Cava with the black bottle).
Good for you José, you go José.
Thinking of popping bottles this season? Try these Cavas that won't break the bank.
