Cava

Cava week 2006

Trawling around the Spanish wine blogs this week discovered that it's officially Cava week this week.  I'd been planning on having a look at a couple of bottles of Cava around Melbourne cup, but I'll have to step up and find a couple this week. 

For the uninitiated, cava is Spanish sparkling wine and is made from 3 primary grapes: Parellada, Xarel-lo and Macabeo.  Chardonay is starting to show up here and there as well.  DO Cava is a bit of an odd one as it covers a number of areas, the Penedes, Catalunya and just about anywhere else that makes sparkling wine.  There are around 270 producers in the DO and a range of styles of cava are made, from fresh and crisp to loads of lees contact and complexity.  It is obviously loads of fun, look at the advertising….perhaps not the most subtle, but thats the Spanish and Catalonians  for you.

There does seem to be a lot of cross pollination between champagne and cava, a number of Champagne's biggest names are trying to make cava in Spain and a couple of Cava producers have bought Champagne houses.  I don't think cava will ever put champagne out of business, if you are looking for a cheap champagne replacement I think you will be disappointed.  You will find some really good wines however, the brut nature or no dosage styles are especially good if you like fresh crisp sparkling wine.  

So, if you see a bottle of Cava in the bottle shop this week you now have an excuse to try it, it is Cava week after all.