Wines News & People
Cava
Wine Style:
It is usually fruity and pleasantly acidic.
Flavors:
Cava is rarely popular in Asian wine circles. Moreever, the three most commonly used grapes don’t AGE well, yet Cava DO rules require a minimum aging of 9 months. This means that many of these wines are dull and bland with an earthy character-they should be drunk as young as possible while there’s still some fruit flavor.
Origin:
Penedès in Catalonia, Spain
Found:
Spain only
Cava is a Greek term that is used to refer to “high end” table wine or wine cellar. Comes from the Latin word “CAVA” which means cave in English. In today’s wine culture, Cava simply is the name of a type of white or pink sparkling wine, produced mainly in the Penedès region in Catalonia, Spain, 40 km to the south west of Barcelona.
Cava is produced in varying levels of dryness of the wine which are: brut nature, brut (extra dry), seco (dry) and semiseco (medium). Under Spanish Denominación de Origen laws, Cava can be produced in six wine regions and must be made according to the Méthode champenoise and uses a selection of the grapes Macabeo (Of Viura in Spain, high in acids, floral and fruity), Parellada (Almonds, mix of yellow and green apples), Xarel·lo (Apricot, Citrus, and dried fruits), Chardonnay, and Subirat. Despite being a traditional Champagne grape, Chardonnay was not used in the production of Cava till the 1980s.
Further Reading:
Wikipedia
Wine Intro
Spain for Visitors
About.com