14 CAVA
Riddle me this
The past, present and future of Catalunya’s favourite bubbly. By Tara Stevens. Photos by Tashoma Lemard.
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othing captures the spirit of Christmas in Catalunya like cava. It’s like good cheer in a glass; sparkling and bubbling and oozing festiveness, very often for under €10, and an essential purchase if you’re planning to spend the festive season here. It was invented in the 1860s by Josep Raventós, who was touring France promoting the still wines he was making at the time when he stumbled across the small, shaly Champagne region in the north-east of the country. He was impressed by the sparkling wines he found there and set about learning the méthode champenoise, which had been invented by the monk Dom Perignon, to try out back in Catalunya. Raventós released his first bottle in 1872 and it was an instant success, fast becaming a favourite of the Spanish aristocracy and royal family; today, his winery—now part of Codorníu—is still going strong in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia in the Penedès region. Unable since the Eighties to officially call the sparkling wine ‘champagne’ due to European Unions laws on protected geographical status, the Catalan version takes its name from the cellars (literally caves in Catalan) that Raventós dug in order to preserve his wines. Indeed, the Modernista cellars at Codorníu are some of the
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most impressive in the world. Designed and built by the great Josep Puig i Cadafalch, they were officially recognised as a Monument of Historic and Artistic Interest in 1976. Unlike champagne, which is attached to a region, cava refers to any sparkling wine made using the ‘traditional method’ in Spain. Contrary to popular belief, this production isn’t limited to the Penedès though that is certainly the area that makes the majority of it. Traditionally the grapes used were endemic to Spain—Macabeo, Paralleda and Xarel·lo—which resulted in a fairly light wine. There’s still plenty of traditional cava-making about, but more recently the taste for champagne worldwide has caused producers to inject a little Chardonnay and Pinot Noir into the mix, often with excellent results. Think of it as the new wave if you like, and often they are the bottles that are putting cava on the map. In terms of production, the method is exactly like that of champagne. The wine is made, bottled and stopped with a metal cap. Just before the bottle is corked, a mixture of yeast and sugar is added to kick-start a secondary fermentation, which creates the bubbles. The wine is then left to rest, basically soaking up lots of flavour and character from the lees—the icky stuff left at the bottom of the bottle after the fermentation—and the maker ‘riddles’ it
11/23/11 12:41:01 PM