WTF is Cava?

Episode Transcript

Hello! And welcome to the Wine Pair podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and wine-pairing partner in crime. And we are the Wine Pair.

In this episode, just in time for the holidays, we are going to talk about one of our favorite things in the whole wide world, at least when it comes to wine, and that is sparkling wine. Woo hoo! Sparkling wine!!! And not just any sparkling wine, but a specific type of sparkling wine called Cava that comes from Spain or Espana!

We love sparkling wine, don’t we! Why do you love sparkling wine?

So, we are getting really deep into the holidays, and we figured that since people often drink sparkling wine around the holidays, why don’t we talk about a fun and different type of sparkling wine that is becoming easier and easier to find but I think is underappreciated in Cava. 

But, before we get to sparkling wines, I wanted to ask you a few questions related to the holidays to see what you really think, Carmela. 

• Question #1: What are your thoughts about shopping mall santas? Cute or creepy?
• Question #2: What is the better mint candy? The red or the green and why? Why don’t we put candy canes on our tree?
• Question #3: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? (What is your favorite Christmas movie)
• Question #4: Best and worst Christmas food - could be a candy, a drink, an entree, anything?
• Question #5: What is worse, putting up the decorations, or taking them down? (What are your target dates for taking down the decorations)
• Bonus question: Why do you hate every present I get you for Christmas?

Now, let’s get back to our subject of the day - WTF is Cava?  We love sparkling wines don’t we?!? But I am thinking we should do a little edumacation on sparkling wines - a few things you should know as you think about serving or drinking sparkling wines with friends and family this holiday - or really any time of year. 

The first thing we want you to know is that sparkling wines are often thought about as a celebration wine, but they are actually a really great wine for anytime. Don’t you think? And, they go great with food - in fact, a lot of the foods that you would eat with a non-sparkling white wine are great with a sparkling wine, too. Cheese, charcuterie boards, fish, chicken, turkey, spicy foods. All awesome with sparkling wines! But, I will say that nothing says the holidays like some sparkling wine! 

Sparkling wine just makes me happy. In a bottle or in a can, I love me some sparkling wine! And we think it’s really fun to bring sparkling wines to a holiday celebration, of course, and a Cava can be a really fun and different sparkling wine to bring. They tend to be much easier to find now than ever before, and they are very reasonably priced, so the price to quality ratio or QPR is amazeballs!

The second thing you must know is that not all sparkling wine is champagne. In fact, most sparkling wine is not champagne. Can you name some sparkling wines that are not champagne? (Cava, Prosecco, Franciacorta, Asti Spumante, anything from the US). Technically, champagne is from the Champagne region of France. If it ain’t from the Champagne region of France, it ain’t champagne, but instead a sparkling wine. In fact, there a lot of great sparkling wines from France that are not from Champagne. So, it’s not just French sparkling wine, but a specific area of France that makes wine called Champagne. And, you usually know that it is from Champagne because it tends to be pretty expensive. Not always, but if you are buying cheap bubbly, unless it’s from Costco’s Kirkland brand, it is highly doubtful you are buying Champagne.

Now, a lot of sparkling wine is made in the champagne method, and you might see that on a bottle of sparkling wine, and those are often excellent wines, but they are not champagne. Ok. Get it? Don’t let me catch you serving a sparkling wine that is not champagne and calling it champagne. Calling it bubbly is fine. 

The third thing you should know is that the way in which sparkling wine is named is confusing when it comes to whether or not it is sweet. Bear with me on this one, because we are about to blow your minds. Now, I will say that most sparkling wines do have a sweetness to them, and that is natural. But some sparkling wines have sugar or sweetened wine added to them to increase their sweetness and help with second fermentation - which is what gives the bubbles. That’s right, sparkling wines are generally fermented more than once.  So here is where it gets confusing. If you see a sparkling wine called Dry - that is actually a sweet sparkling wine. Ok, let’s break it down a bit, so you know what you are looking at when you are getting sparkling wine.

• The driest sparkling wines are usually labled as Brut Nature, Brut Zero, Zero Dosage, or pas dose - they have no additional sugar added, and contains between 0-3 grams of sugar
• Extra Brut is the next driest, and has between 0-6 grams of sugar
• Brut is the next driest, and has between 0-12 grams of sugar

All of these are considered dry wines, and all have a “mouthwatering” effect. These are my favorite types. I like them nice and dry. 

Then, we get into the sweet sparkling wines

• Extra dry or extra sec is the next sweetest sparkling wine, which, again is confusing because it has dry in the name. It will have 12-17 grams of sugar per liter
• Sec or dry is sweeter still, I know, confusing, and has between 17-32 grams of sugar, so pretty damn sweet
• Demi-sec or semi-sec is the next sweetest, which is extra confusing, and it has 32-50 grams of sugar per liter. This is a dessert wine. This wine will make you thirsty!
• And the sweetest of all is Doux or dulce, sometimes called sweet, with more than 50 grams of sugar per liter, or more than a can of Coke! 

So, if this is confusing, I am sorry, but just remember, in sparkling wine, Brut is dry, and Dry is sweet. I tend not to like the sweet wines as much. I can take a little, but too much just starts burning a hole in my stomach. 

So, let’s get to some Cava! We are going to be drinking some brut Cava, and again, all Cava comes from Spain. It comes from an area of Spain near Barcelona, and is made in the champagne method or style, but uses different grapes than champagne. The classic champagne grapes are Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot meunier, while the classic grapes for Cava are a bunch of grapes I can’t pronounce like Macabeu, Parellada, Xarel·lo, Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and Subirat, but just rest assured that the wine tastes different from champagne. 

Cava comes in a couple of “grades” like a lot of wines - from plain old Cava to Reserve to Gran Reserva. It all depends on how long they are left “on the lees” which is the dead yeast which is supposed to make it more creamy. All of the cavas we have are regular cava, and they tend to be the least expensive. The Reserva and Gran Reserva are aged longer, the Gran Reserva for at least 30 months. Which is a long time!

And, after we taste and review these wines, we are going to check the tastes and smells we think we are experiencing with those of a classic Cava. And, I do want to make one quick comment. Last episode on Merlot, I said I was smelling and tasting like rose or potpourri on one of the wines we did not like - the Bogle - and it turns out that one of the classic flavors of a merlot is violet which is described as follows: Violet flowers have a soft, tender aura, a bit similar to iris, and smell powdery and romantic. AND  With nuances of raspberry and rose, violet perfumes are popular with those who like sweet, feminine fragrances. Soft and velvety violet is frequently mixed with iris and rose for a musky floral scent

Wines

Wine: Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut Cava

Region: Catalonia, Spain

Producer: Freixenet

Year: NV

Price: $8.99

Retailer: Fred Meyer

Alcohol: 11.5%

Grapes (if not clear): Macabeu (35%), Xarel-lo (25%) and Parellada (40%)

Rating: Joe 7 Carmela 8

Wine: Segura Viudas Brut Cava

Region: Catalonia, Spain

Producer: Segura Viudas

Year: NV

Price: $7.99

Retailer: QFC

Alcohol: 12%

Grapes (if not clear):  50% Macabeo, 35% Parellada, 15% Xarello

Rating: Joe 7 Carmela 6

Wine: Jaume Serra Cristalino Brut Cava

Region: Catalonia, Spain (?)

Producer: Juame Serra

Year: NV

Price: $11.99

Retailer: QFC

Alcohol: 11.5%

Grapes: 50% Macabeo, 35% Parellada, 15% Xarel-lo

Rating: Joe 8 Carmela 7

Taste profiles expected

• Quince (fancy way of saying a sour apple or sour pear - an apple or pear + a citrus like lemon), lime, yellow apple, chamomile (which has a little apple to it, and some honey and some flower), and almond. Like all sparklers, it can have a toasty and creamy quality as well. 
• Citrus and mediterranean fruit (apples, apricots, avocados, cherries, clementines, dates, figs, grapefruits, grapes, melons, nectarines, olives, oranges, peaches, pears, pomegranates, strawberries, tangerines, tomato)
• Lemon curd, yellow flowers, almond paste

What is the wine we are finishing tonight? 

Well, that was super fun! 

If you have ideas for wines you would like us to try and give you advice on for future podcasts, let us know. You can visit our website at thewinepairpodcast.com and leave a voice message or send us a note. You can comment or reach out on Instagram or Twitter - on Instagram you can find us at thewinepairpodcast, and on Twitter at winepairpodcast (no “the” on twitter ‘cause it don’t fit). You can reach out to us at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and we just hope to hear you comments. And we hope you’ll subscribe and follow us

Thanks for listening to the Wine Pair podcast, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine