
Cava: Spain's Bubbly Stuff
by
Erin
on Mon 15 Oct 2007 09:00 AM CEST
One of our don Quijote interns from the UK prepared this cava "primer". She's included some pretty tempting cava cocktail ideas at the end:
Cava, the bubbly stuff
The last time you cracked open a bottle of bubbly, what was it?
Champagne? Asti? Sovetskoye Shampanskoye? Or cava? Producing over 12 million cases a year, Spain is the world's second largest producer of sparkling wine and although often mistakenly regarded as a “poor man´s champagne”, is actually a very acceptable and affordable alternative to the French drink.
Unlike the French producers, who struggle to keep prices down due to the high production costs – one hectare of vineyards in the Champagne region currently changes hands for one million euros – a good bottle of cava from one of the well known producers, Codorniu or Freixenet, can be found in a supermarket for as little as 7€....slightly better value than your average bottle of Moet!
Although EU law dictates that cava (or any other sparkling wine) cannot be referred to as “champagne”, Spain's bubbly shares many of the same features as its French counterpart, most notably the method by which it was made. The discovery of the méthode champenoise is famously credited to the French monk Dom Pérignon (c.1638 – 1715), who upon tasting it for the first time, is said to have shouted to his brethren, “Come quickly! I am drinking stars!” Literary references show that forms of sparkling wine have been produced in Spain... more »