History
During the Moorish rule of southern Spain (from 71 1 to 1492)the
cultivation of vineyards was continued and improved for the sake of the fruit
and its juice. Some vineyards, indeed, perhaps under the jurisdiction of more
liberal Caliphs, won special permission to continue to make wine. However, 'twas
after the restoration ofthe Catholic monarchy that the business of growing
grapes and making wine really started to make an impression on the market. By
the sixteenth century AD "Sack" from Jerez, the Canaries and Alicante was the
staple of Falstaffian festivities fiom New Castile to Newcastle and beyond, and
the famous occasion upon which Sir Francis Drake "singed the King of Spain's
beard'' was a raid on Cadiz harbour in 1597 which netted 2,900 pipes of wine.
Spain's next great leap forward came in the mid- 19th century, as the
vineyards of northern Europe were progressively devastated by Phylloxem As the
beetle munched its way south, French wine-producers came over the Pyrenees to
see what they could do to salvage something of their livelihood in Spanish soil,
often bringing their treasured vines with them. Some ofthe Cabernet-Sauvignon
and Merlot planted in Rioja and Ribera del Duero dates back to this time.
Phylloxera eventually reached Spain, of course - at the end of the nineteenth
century - but by this time the solution of grafting on to American rootstocks
had already been discovered, and the vineyards could be replanted as necessary
with as short a break in production as possible - often even less than the three
years during which new vines grow to fruit-bearing maturity. But further
disasters whereon their way. The civil war condemned vine-growing to neglect,
and after that was over, World War II meant that the rest ofthe continent was
not in the wine-buying business, even if the decaying Spanish vineyards (with a
few notable exceptions) had been capable of producing enough quality wine to
export.
However, by the early 1950s things were getting back to normal, quality and
quantity increased, and the export markets started to revive. Local wine
protection societies started to win official recognition, and the seeds of
Spain's comprehensive Denominacion de Origen system were sown.
In the UK, the
(non-fortified) Spanish wine market tended to be dominated by Rioja and
Valdepenas at the " and "Spanish Sauternes" at the bottom end. These were swept
away by the UK's accession to the EC in 1973, and Spanish wine was, at last,
able to compete on equal terms with its peers from elsewhere.
Since then,
Rioja has become established as one of the world's great wines, and it is
gradually being joined in the wine-drinking public's consciousness by many ofthe
other Denominations (now 40, with four more planned for 1995) from Txakoli in
the north to Tacoronte-Acentejo, the newest DO, in the Canary Islands. Some
producers, indeed, have not bothered to wait for accreditation and have begun to
market praiseworthy wines with their own brand or regional names, under the
simple Vine de Mesa or Vine de la Tierra classification.
From a trade point of view, in the 1990s, the market for ordinary Vine de
Mesa is still shrinking, while overall exports to the UK of Spanish wine are now
on the increase, and the cash value of imports is considerably higher,
indicating that sales of quality wines are continuing to improve.
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TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
Spain is the second-biggest country in western Europe, after France, with a
surface area of 509,45 1 sq.km and a population of 37,682355 (1981), giving a
population density of about 74 people to the square kilometre. In comparison
with the UK(23 1 people to the square kilometre), with Germany (220) and even
with France (100), Spain is quite lightly populated, which goes along way to
explaining how it manages to have Europe's largest acreage under vine without
being Europe's largest wine producer. There has simply been no pressure for
intensive cultivation, and yields of around 25 hl/ha are considered quite normal
in many areas, compared with 40-50 in France and 80-100 in Germany.
Central Spain is a plateau (or Meseta) surrounded and crossed by mountain
ranges, of which the most important are the Pyrenees, the Cordillera Cantabrica,
and the Sierras Guadarrama, Morena, and Nevada - only Albania and Switzerland
are more mountainous in Europe. The principal rivers are the Duero (Douro in
Portugal), Ebro, Tajo (Tejo, or Tagus, in Portugal), Guadalquivir, Turia,
Guadiana and M~ (Minho in Portugal), which last two respectively mark the
eastern and northern boundaries with Portugal for some of respectively their
length.
Climatically, Spain has everything from maritime wetlands to arid desert,
under both Mediterranean and Atlantic influences. In the northeast, Galicia,
Asturias, Cantabria and Pais Vasco/Euskadi are sometimes known collectively as
"green Spain'' for their maritime climate, high level of rainfall and Atlantic
influences.
On the east coastal strip down to Alicante the influences are Mediterranean
decreasing further inland towards the uplands of the central plateau or Meseta,
where the climate is much more continental. Here the land is ,because a was the
only plant tough enough to withstand the extremes of temperature.
South of Alicante the climate is Mediterranean and semi-aid verging on aid in
some south-central areas Where rivers regularly dry up and disappear during the
summer months. Around to the south-east, west of the straits of Gibraltar, the
Atlantic influences return helped to an extent by the trade winds. This helps to
explain why the vineyards in that area (the Sherry country) perform so much
better than fortified-wine vineyards further east. More precise details of
climatic conditions are given with the notes for each area.
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WINE MAKING
Although Spain has the largest area under vine of any EC country, production
figures for wine are lower than those ofthe rest ofthe EC, partly because of the
dry climate and partly because irrigation is forbidden by law, except in
'experimental' plantations. In addition to this, many Spanish vineyards are
growing vines which are over 40 years old and therefore producing smaller
yields. A good deal of work is currently going on in the vineyards with new vine
varieties and new training, pruning and rooting techniques.
However, winemakers have been quick to take new technology to their bodegas,
and many of the most modem wineries in Europe are now to be found in Spain. Old-
fashioned wines - and, indeed some classic wines - are still made for local
consumption in epoxy-lined concrete or ceramic-tiled vats - or even concrete
tinajas - but stainless steel is very much to the fore. Indeed, with stainless
steel technology now considerably cheaper than rebuilding old vats, we may
expect to see its eventual dominance.
A typical winemaking process at vintage time, almost anywhere in Spain, will
go something like this: the grapes are brought fiom the fields in the back of
tippers which have been painted with epoxy resin to prevent grape- contact with
the metalwork ofthe body, or stacked in plastic trays. The value of the grapes
(i.e. and the quality of the wine) is likely to determine which method is used.
The trucks (usually tipper-trailers drawn behind tractors) pause at a weigh
bridge on their way into the winery where the load ~weighed~. At the same time,
a sampling arm drops into the load, load picks up some grapes and sucks up the
juice to check for ripeness and acidity: farmers are paid a premium for grapes
picked at the right time.
The grapes are then tipped into a stainless steel tolva, or hopper, which has
an Archimedean screw at the bottom. This carries the grapes to the de-stalker,
from where they are passed to the vat, or a press, which is likely to be of the
continuous-screw or pneumatic type. In general, free-run must (lagrima, or mosto
de yema) is run straight off into stainless steel for the export market,
first-pressing must (aguaipie) goes for the production of local wines, and the
stuff that gets squeezed out of the remainder (vine de prensa) goes for
distilling.
Fermentation (for export wines) takes place in stainless steel tanks of
anything from 50 hectolitres upwards, usually with a water-jacket to keep the
temperature down to about 180C for white wines and 250 for reds. The wine
undergoes alcoholic fermentation for anything up to twenty days, and then (if
required) malo lactic for a further fifteen, after which it is despatched to
cooling tanks for the precipitation of tartrates.
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NEW VARIANTS
The methods described above are common throughout Spain but those producers
who have particular aspirations to making quality red wines are now using a
slightly different method which retains more of the primary flavours of the
grape: After de-stalking the grapes are pumped - whole, but by now broken - into
the fermenting vessel and fermentation takes place with full skin-contact.
The most modern installations use 'auto-evacuaciones' - self-emptying tanks
shaped like flying saucers, with hatches top and bottom. These are manipulated
by an overhead crane so that their contents are transferred solely by gravity,
and without the use of pumps, although this type of fermentation is also
regularly carried out in traditional and auto-vinification vats. Only after
alcoholic fermentation is accomplished is the wine run off the skins, and the
skins then go off to be pressed for the second-run must. This method is not used
for white wines.
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TYPES OF AGEING
The ageing process takes place in one of two ways: oxidative, where oxygen is
available (in however small quantities) to the wine, and reductive, where there
is no oxygen. Barrel-ageing is oxidative, since molecules ofair can percolate
through the wood or the joins between the staves and react with the wine - along
with the characteristics of the oak itself. Bottle-ageing is reductive, as the
amount of oxygen between the wine and the cork is reduced to zero during the
reactions, which take place at a gentler pace.
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TANK STORAGE
This can also be reductive, although it's not wholly correct to think of
stainless steel as being perfectly hermetic. In reality, stainless steel comes
in a number of grades - all of them porous to a greater or lesser extent - and a
stainless steel fermenting tank is likely to be made of three or four circular
cylinders welded together, of three or four different grades.
The one at the top will be of the highest quality, since it is at the
interface between the wine and the air, and will be subject to the strongest
oxidising influences. Down at the bottom, where the steel is always covered with
wine, and rust is not an issue, the steel may be of a much lower grade, and will
be commensurably more amenable to the passage of the odd molecule of air.
However, tank storage is often used for joven/s in crianza wines as a substitute
for bottle-age, as it also carries with it the convenience of instant bottling
when a shipment is required.
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OAK STORAGE
Ageing wine in oak speeds up the maturation process considerably, as well as
imparting unique flavours and tannins to the wine, the most noticeable of which
is vanillin There are three main types of oak used in the ageing process in
Spain, each of which is useful at a different stage of a wine's development.
American Oak Tennessee White Oak has comparatively large pores and a high
vanillin content, so it tends to be used for big, powerful wines and where the
winemaker wants results early. Some winemakers put their wines into American oak
for a short initial period and then move it to a French oak for a second period
of ageing: Limousin Oak has much smaller pores and less vanillin, and so offers
a slower, gentler ageing process. Finer wines approaching their release date
will often spend some time in Limousin casks, as it were, to "polish them up"
for bottling.
Alliers Oak has the smallest pores of all, and is the oak used for
barrel-fermented wines. Plainly, the tumult of fermentation takes a good deal
out ofthe barrel, and this could result in oaky flavours that were simply too
strong if the other types of oak had been used.
Oak from other regions (e.g. Nevers, Troncais, Slovenia) may also be found
occasionally amongst particular enthusiasts, but the basic maturation factor is
that oak which has grown in a warmer climate will have larger pores, and oak
which has grown in a cooler climate will have smaller pores, with commensurate
effects on the wine.
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QUALITY WINE
Denominacion de Origen or DO wines are the classic wines of Spain,
each with its own Consejo Regulador to look after and police every aspect of
growing, winemaking and marketing the wines. There are 40 of these (with a
possible further four during 1995), and only three of Spain's seventeen
Autonomous Communities - Astmias,Cantabria and Extremadura- have no DO wine
within their boundaries. However, Extremadura is moving up the taffriail with a
the DOp Tierra de Barros, and both Cantabria and Asturias produce classified
wines of their own.
Denominacion de Origen Calificada or DOC (or DOCa) is a higher
category (inaugurated in 1988) cognate with the Italian DOCG classification and
reserved for wines of the highest quality which have proved over a very long
period that they can consistently maintain that high quality. Other
considerations include price of grapes (at least 200% of base-price),
original-bottling, and very stringent tasting and testing regimes.
The first
promotion to this status - Rioja, of course - was announced on the 9th April,
1991. The precise details of the subject to various actions still in progress at
the European Court. What has been decided however, is that total control ofthe
DOC will rest with the Consejo Regulador in La Rioja, even when it applies to
those DOC wines made in the autonomies of Pais Vasco Euskadi (Rioja Alavesa) and
Navarra (Rioja Baja).
Cava is a DO in its own right, classified both according to Production
method and geographical areas. What is unique about Cava is that individual
wine-making areas can apply for authorisation to produce Cava regardless of
their geographical position. Once granted the Cava "licence" is valid only for
the specified vineyards and winemaking and ageing area - though there are three
exceptions, one in Castillay Leon, one in Valencia and the third in Extremadura,
who are still making Cava under the old DE rules until such time as their
vineyards can be properly mapped.
When Cava was promoted from DE to DO in 1987, many areas lost the right to
call their sparkling wine Cava, and were required to downgrade it to "Vine
Espumoso, Metodo Tradicional". This was not a popular move in certain quarters
(though its purpose, of course, was to preserve the quality of the wine), and
the echoes of the arguments that ensued can still be heard in many parts of
Spain but see Rueda - section E1.6 - for a very effective response!). Details of
the Cava DO with a full list of municipios entitled to grow grapes for it can be
found in the section devoted to Cava (section B1).
NB. 95% of Cava comes from
the top right-hand centre of Spain. and 95% of that 9~i0~ comes fiom the
province of Barcelona And 95% of that 95% comes fiom around the town of St
Sadurni d;Anoia .
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NORTH WEST
GALICIA- GENERAL
VINES DE LA TIERRA
DO RIAS BAIXAS
DO RIBEIRO
DO
VALDEORRAS
ASTARIAS- GENERAL
CANTABRIA- GENERAL
PAIS VASCO/ENSKADI -
GENT
DO CHACOLI/TXAKOLI
DOC RIOJA
Pais Vasco (north)- DO Trakoh
Castilla-Len (north)- DO Bieno
Asturias -
Vines de Mesa
Cantabria - Vines de Mesa
Climatic factors: Coastal Atlantic influences - cooler, wetter, windier than
the interior. Cultural factors: Celtic, pre-Christian and pre-Roman traditions,
minimal Moorish influence. Seafaring tradition.
Gastronomic factors: Coastal,
seafood emphasis, leading to light, fresh wines, mainly white but with some
light reds.
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COUNTRY WINE AREAS
Vines De La Tierra
Spain's country wine areas are classified into
two quality grades: first come the wines are officially classified as 'Vines de
Mesa con Derecho al Uso de under Indicacion Geografica' or 'Table Wines with the
right to the use of a Geographical Indication'. These are Vines de la Tierra
(Vd1T), there are 28 of them including wines which already have provisional DEs
and DOs and this is the category for wines which are on or contemplating the
promotional 'ladder'.
The second group (also 28 strong) is completely different and, to make this
difference absolutely clear they are called 'Otras Comarcas con Derecho a la
Utilizacion de Mencion Geografica en Vines de Mesa', or 'other districts with
the right to the use ofa geographical mention in table wines' which, to avoid
extraneous acronymity, we shall abbreviate to Vine Comarcal ( VC - local wine),
which is a sort of halfway-house between plain Vine de Mesa and Vine de ]la
Tierra status. The Country wine zones, both VdlT and VC, are classified into
nine regions, some of which include more than one autonomy. Please note also
that some VdlT wines straddle two provinces. Those marked ( Dop) and (Dep) also
have a provisional DO or DE. This list was published on the 17th October, 1992.
In addition, there are wines which have been classified locally but which
have yet to receive official recognition. These are listed on page A2.1/5, and
in the introductory pages of their respective Autonomies.
(1) Region Gallega
(Autonomy of Galicia)
Province of La Coruna/A Coruna
VC: Betanzos, Ribeira do Ulla (part)
Province of Orense/Ourense
VdiT: Ribeira Sacra (part), Valle del Mino
Ourense, Valle de Monterrey
VC: O Bolo
Province of Lugo
VdiT: Ribeira Sacra (part)
(2) Region del Duero
(Autonomy of Castilla-Leon - part)
Province of Burgos
VC: La Ribera del Arlanza
Province of Leon
VdlT: Valdevimbre-Los Oteros (part)
Province of Salamanca
VdlT: Los Arribes del Duero-Fermoselle (part)
VC:
La Sierra de Salamanca
Province of Segovia
VC: Valtiendas
Province of Valladolid
VdlT: Valdevimbre-Los Oteros (part)
Province of Zamora
VdlT: Los Arribes del Duero-Fermoselle (part), Tierra
del Vine de Zamora
VC: Benavente
(3) Region Aragonesa
(Autonomy of Aragon)
Province of Teruel
VdlT: Bajo Aragon
VC: Alto Jiloca, Muniesa
Province of Zaragoza
VdlT: Tierra Baja de Aragon, Valdejalon
VC:
Belchite, Daroca
(4) Region Catalana
(Autonomy of/Catalunya)
Province of Barcelona
VC: Anoia), Artes
Province or Lerida/Lleida
VC: Conca de Tremp
Province of Tarragona
VC: Bajo Ebro Montsia
(5) Region Extremena
(Autonomy of Extremadura)
Province of Badajoz
VdlT: Matanegra, Ribera Alta del Guadiana, Ribera Baja
del Guadiana, Tierra de Banes (DOp)
VC: Azuaga, La Serena
Province of Caceres
VdiT: Canamero, Montanchez
VC: Cilleros
(6) Region Central
(Autonomies of Castilla-La Mancha and part of
Castilla-Leon)
Province of Albacete
VdlT: Pozohondo, Manchuela ( DOp) (part)
Province of Cuenca
VdlT: Manchuela ( DOp) (part)
Province of Guadalajara
VdlT: Sacedon-Mondejar
Province of Toledo
VdiT: C%ilvez
Province of Avila
VdlT: Cebreros (DEp)
(7) Region Levantina
(Autonomies of Valencia and Murcia)
Province of Murcia
VdlT: Abanilla, Bullas ( DOp), Campo de Cartagena
Province of Alicante
VC: Beniarres, Lliber-Javea
Province of Castellon
VC: San Mateo
(8) Region Andaluza
( Andalucia)
Province of Almeria
VC: Laujar
Province of Cadiz
VdlT: Cadiz
Province of Cordoba
VC: Villaviciosa
Province of Granada
VdiT: Contraviesa-Alpujara
Province of Jaen
VC: Lopera
Province of Sevilla
VC: Aljarafe, Lebrija, Los Palacios
(9) Region Canaria
( of Canarias)
Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
VdiT: Fuencaliente (La Pama), El
Hierro
VC: Iced Tenerife)
Province of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
VdlT: La Geria (Lanzarote)
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ORIGINS
The first bottle of Cava was produced in the Barcelona region by Josep
Raventos, head of the family firm a Codorniu, in 1872. Josep had travelled
widely in central Europe and seen the exuberance with which Champagne was being
consumed, all over the continent. At that time the Codorniu company was
producing still wines from traditional Catalan varieties, and Josep thought they
might prove to be suitable for turning into sparkling wine by the Champagne
method.
Wine makers had been trying to make a quality sparkler since the 1830s, when
Champagne as we know it (i.e. with the disgorgement method developed b Mme
Clicquot) first appeared, but the differences between Champagne and Catalunya in
terms of grapes and climate as well as the availability of the right kind of
wine making kit, skills, bottles and even appropriate corks, had mean that early
experiments based on copying Champagne' methods directly had filled.
Raventos was a member of an informal group o major wine-producers in the Sant
Sadurni d'Anoia area known colloquially as the 'Seven Creek Sages' - who met
each week to pool their knowledge and share the results their experiments. It
seems likely that many of them were approaching success by 1872, but it was
Josep Raventos who got there first.
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DENOMINACION
Cava (which literally means 'cellar') is a QSWPSR quality sparkling wine
produced in a specific region an made by the traditional Champagne method . In
1970, when the Spanish agreed to abandon the name 'Champagne', 'Cava' was the
word used to describe the Methode Champenoise Metodo Champanes) production
method for wines produced within Spain by that method Membership of the EC
required a more limiting area than the Spanish national border (to maintain
QWPSR status and so the municipios listed below were designated as the specified
region(s).
The Cava DO is not restricted to one particular demarcated area
CATALUNYA
ARAGON
NAVARRA
LA RIOJA
PAIS VASCO
There are also three provisional
areas:
VALENCIA
EXTREMADURA
CASTILLA-LEON
The original Cava DE was
established on the 4th September 1959, and the wine was raised to QSWPSR (DO)
status in Spain on February 21st, 1986. However, when this was confirmed by the
EC on the 15th of June, 1986, it was listed only 'provisionally" as a quality
Wine, pending the precise identification and mapping of the vineyards. This was
finally accomplished on the 14th November, 1991, and the list of the 159
approved municipalities was confirmed on the 9th January, 1992.
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GRAPES AND YIELD
The three main varieties recommended for Cava production are Macabeo (Viura),
Parellada, and Xarello, - followed by Chardonay and Subirat Malvasia, and the
red varieties Garnacha and Monastrell for making Cava Rosado, which is usually
known in Catalunya as 'Rose".
Most of the Cava produced in Barcelona Tarragona and Gerona (Girona) uses the
'big three' grape varieties, and a typical mix might be 5O% Macabeo, 30% Xarello
and 20% Parellada, though this can be very variable indeed, and Chardonnay often
plays a part in the blend too. Indeed, one or two Cava houses make a 100%
Chardonnay version. In the other provinces (outside Catalunya) Viura-.l Macabeo
is the principal grape, in some cases accounting for 100%, and sometimes blended
with a little Parellada or Malvasia Riojana(Subirat). The general order of
harvesting is Chardonnay first, followed by Xarello, Macabeo, Parellada, and tee
reds.
Yield is fixed as a formula based on grape tonnages with 12 tomes per hectare
of white and 8 tonnes per hectare of red grapes being permitted, with a maximum
of 100 litres of must per 150 Kg. of grapes (i.e. 6.67 hi per tonne). This
represents 80 h1/ha for white grapes and 53 h1/ha for red.
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VINICULTURE
Major Cava producers will often spend the winter and spring helping their
contracted growers to ensure that grapes are ofthe highest possible standard.
Once the vintage starts, everything tends to be very automated and it is of
prime importance to get the grapes to the crushers quickly as possible without
damaging them, which might open the way to oxidation. The order of events at a
thoroughly modern winery goes something like this:
Grapes are traditionally
delivered to the winery in small boxes, weighed and drop-am sampled on the way
in to assess quality. Most companies use pneumatic or rubber- belt presses to
ensure that the first pressing is as gentle as possible, and only this pressing
may be used for making Cava However, more and more bodegas are introducing
satellite pressing-plants in order to transport must in isothermic tankers to
the fermentation tanks, rather than risk oxidation by taking the grapes on a
long journey.
After pressing, the must is allowed to decant in chilled tanks, at vacuum
filtered, to make sure that all impurities are removed before the fermentation
begins. Once the must is clear, fermentation takes place in
temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks at temperatures up to 18"C. Each
grape variety is fermented and made into wine separately, to allow for the
differences in ripening dates and quality development for different varieties
from different vineyards.
Cupada (Coupage) takes place in December and January, when all the wines have
been made. This is when the Cava houses select what proportions of which wines
will go into each of their cuvees. This is the critical point in the making of
any Champagne-method wine, as the blend chosen in those dark, December cellars
will govern the quality ofthe finished wine, one, three, or five years later.
Once the cuvee has been finalised Triage takes place: the wine is bottled
along with a measure of yeast and cane sugar, and sealed with a crown cap.
Inside the crown cap is a small plastic cup, with its open end facing into the
bottle. This is what will contain the sediment once the wine is ready for
disgorgement.
The wine then goes into stare in steel cages which are racked
one above the other by fork-lift truck, with the bottles in a horizontal
position.
When the time comes for Removido (Remuage - tipping the sediment down into
the cap) the cages ape removed and attached to a Girasol. It was the Cava
industry which invented the Girasol ('sunflower') method of removido, in which a
whole pallet of wine can be turned through a sector of a circle each day by two
men. The old method was to have 'removideros' turning the bottles individually
by hand in pupitres, and this is still done in some ofthe smaller houses. The
big shippers, however, have introduced a new version ofthe Girasol which takes
up rather less room than its predecessor. It looks like a rocking- chair base on
to which the cage full of bottles is locked The whole thing is then rocked from
one side to the other once each day until the sediment has completed its
descent.
Deguelle disgorgement) is fully automatic, with pallet-layers of bottles
going neck-down into freezer-baths filled with salt water at about -100C. After
10 minutes or so the necks are frozen, and a computer-controlled system removes
cap and sediment, extracts a little wine, mixes it with the licor de expedicion
and then tops the bottle up, corks, cages, capsules, washes, labels and packs it
in cardboard boxes for shipment.
Licor de expedicion contains a variable amount of sugar according to the
required sweetness of the finished wine:
Extra Brut: less than 6 g/l
Brut:
6-15 g/l
Extra Seco: 12-20 g/l
Seco: 17-35 g/l
Semi-Seco: 33-50
g/l
Dulce: over 50 g/l
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THE WINE
To achieve the DO Cava, a sparkling wine must rest on its lees for at least
nine months before disgorgement, achieve 4 atmospheres of pressure at 20"C, and
attain an alcoholic strength of between 10.8% and 12.8% abv. That said, many, if
not most Cavas may seem to offer far more than that in terms of maturity. A good
mid-range brand exported to the UK might be expected to have one to two years in
the bottle, and some of the top-of-the-range models put out by the major Cava
houses may have anything up to three to five.
Plainly, the quality of a sparkling wine is governed by three factors. These
are: The quality of the grapes that go into the cuvee. Cava houses now specify
very precisely what they're prepared to accept in terms of ripeness, acidity,
and health, and some vineyards are picked in the early hours of the morning,
pressed in the vineyard and transported in insulated tanks to the winery to
ensure the best quality.
The length of time the wine spends on its lees between triage and deguelle.
By law Cava must spend nine months on its lees before it can receive the
Denominacion, but most except the very cheapest Cavas are likely to have at
least a year or even eighteen months. Cava which has spent a minimum of 30
months on its lees is allowed to call itself Gran Reserva However, this epithet
is not often seen on labels - perhaps became people associate the term 'Gran
Reserva' with red heavyweights from elsewhere in Spain.
Yeast autolysis: by the time removido starts, the yeast cells lying on the
side ofthe bottle are dead Their active life ended once the fermentation was
complete and they sank to the bottom, as it were, exhausted The process of
removido is not just designed to get these husks to the stopper for their final
journey to the Marmite factory. It also serves to crack open the yeast cells and
release the 'endoplasm' within them, allowing it to be absorbed into the wine,
literally 'adding body' to it. This process of resorption - which is called
autolysis - is what makes the difference between a good wine and a splendid one.
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OTHER SPARKLING WINES
Naturally, enough Spain produces sparkling wines by other methods and in
other areas than those covered by the Cava laws. Five types are recognised:
Vine Espumoso, Metodo Tradicional: these are wines made by the same
method as Cava, but outside the vineyard areas approved for Cava production, and
thereby denied the Cava epithet. The most prominent example is the Do Rueda
Espumoso (qv) - having lost the right to the Cava name (because they use Verdejo
rather than Viura) Rueda responded by creating its own sparkling Denominacion.
Maturation norms are as for Cava, and also as for Cava, cork is identified by a
four-pointed star on the base.
Vine Espumoso by itself, sometimes accompanied by the information that
it has been fermented in the bottle, is wine which has been made by the 'Metodo
Transfer'. In other words, the wine has undergone its second fermentation in the
bottle, bat to avoid the costs of removido and deguelle, the wine is then
extracted from the bottle and transferred under pressure through a filter to
another bottle. Minimum ageing period is two months. The base of the cork
carries an identifying rectangle.
Granvas is an abbreviation for Gran Vase or large vessel - what the
French would call a Cuvee Close. These are wines second-fermented in a tank and
filter-bottled under pressure. Minimum ageing period is three weeks. The base
ofthe cork carries an identifying oval.
Vine Gasificado is wine which has been carbonated, usually by the
dissolution of blocks of solid Carbon Dioxide in a pressure vessel. The base of
the cork carries an identifying equilateral triangle.
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ABBREVIATIONS
These have been intentionally kept to a minimum, but the following are in
general use: All the abbreviations ofthe metric system (all measures are in
metric units) abv: alcohol by volume according to the Organisation
Internationale de Metrologie Legale. This is the new universal EC standard of
measuring strength, as alcohol by volume at 20"C.
DOC: Denominacion de Origen Casificada
DO: Denominacion de Origen
DOp:
Denominacion de Origen Provisional
DE: Denominacion Especifica
DEp:
Denominacion Especifica Provisional
VdlT: Vine de la Tierra (Vine de Mesa con
Derecho al Uso
de ma Indicacion Geografica) at 'Country Wine'
VC : Vine
Comarcal (Vine de Otras Comarcas con Derecho a la UtilizaciOn de Mencion
Geografica en Vines de Mesa) or 'Local Wine'
VdM: Vine de Mesa
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