In the final stretch of cramming for the WSET L2, there will be no bubbly brunchin' today for me, instead we are focusing on sparkling wines! Let's take a look at CAVA (some folks like to refer to this as the step-child to champagne)
CAVA
Cava is the Spanish term for a traditional-method sparkling wine produced in certain regions of Spain. These include Aragon, Castile and Leòn, La Rioja, Navarre and Valencia. The vast majority of cava comes from the Catalunya region. (Penedès area in Catalonia; and industry's home is Sant Sadurni d' Anoia) 95% of all cave is produced in the The most popular grape varieties for producing cava are:
Macabeo
Parellada
Xarello
Although Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are also permitted and can add both fruit flavours and acidity to the base wine. The vast majority of cava comes from the Catalunya region. Due to the warm climate of this region, the grapes may need to be harvested early to retain high acidity. The base wine typically has light flavours of apple and pear. After secondary fermentation, most Cava is aged on its lees for a shorter amount of time than Champagne and has very subtle autolytic characters.
Cava production is dominated by a small number of large brands who make high volumes of simple non-vintage wines. However, there are many smaller producers making very good-quality cavas that are aged in contact with lees for extended periods.
I big thanks to WSET L2 & @thegrapeexplorer
View: A Introduction To Cava
@thegrapeexplorer
Cheers!
Crüology Vines