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Battle of the fizz: Cava takes on champagne

After decades of rising exports, producers of Catalan cava are brimming with confidence and have their eyes set on taking on the "king" of sparkling wine - French champagne.

Battle of the fizz: Cava takes on champagne
Exports of the Catalan sparkling wine have soared. Archive photo: Shutterstock

Cava, which is produced in the Alt Penedes region of northeastern Spain, an area of rolling hills about a half hour's drive south of Barcelona, began seeking new markets three decades ago by offering good value for money.

Exports of cava soared from just 10 million bottles in 1980 to 154.7 million bottles in 2014, the sixth consecutive year that foreign sales of the drink exceeded those of French champagne. By comparison in 2014 France exported 144.9 million bottles of champagne.

But of all the bottles exported last year, only eight million were high-end reserve cavas that producers now want to develop.

“Cava is beginning a second stage. We conquered the world with standard cavas. Now we are going to conquer it again with superior quality cavas,” the head of the the association of small and medium sized cava producers, Pere Guilera, told AFP.

Guilera only produces high-end cavas — some 30,000 bottles annually of which 20 percent are exported — at a small family-owned winery housed in an old farmhouse surrounded by vineyards near the town of Sant Sadurni d'Anoia.

The production requires a careful selection of grapes and a long ageing process of up to 12 years to create a “rich and harmonious aroma, fine bubble and a smooth texture” with a “smooth and slightly fruity” taste, said Guilera.

A bottle of reserve cava costs around €20 ($22), three times less than a bottle of champagne of a similar quality.

“We are offering quality at very low prices,” said Guilera.

Eyeing Asian market

Winegrowers want to reposition cava, whose name is derived for the Catalan word for cellar, by building on the strength gained during Spain's economic downturn.

With the domestic market stagnant producers focused on boosting sales abroad and in 2012 they exported a record 161 million bottles.

“Cava still has some way to go to improve its image in the high-end,” said Pedro Bonet, communications director at Freixenet, the world leader in sparkling wines.

“We have been working on this for the last few years and bit by bit it is bearing fruit. It requires time, investment and careful staging,” he added.


Vines at the Segura Viudas vineyard in Sant Sadurni D'anoia, near Barcelona Photo: Josep Lago / AFP

Freixenet has boosted sales of its high-end cavas in recent years such as its award-winning Casa Sala, which is made using techniques from 150 years ago, including an authentic mammoth wooden press.

Freixenet is focusing its expansion on emerging markets and especially in Asia where customers “value quality and are willing to pay a price for it,” said Bonet.

Japan for example is the fifth-biggest importer of cava but when it comes to high-end cava it is the second-biggest importer.

The country is the main market for the Oriol Rosell winery, which exports half of its annual production of 300,000 bottles.

The majority of its sales are on the low-end of the value chain, young cavas with an ageing process of just 12 months.

Winery tourism

“Cava continues to be seen, at the international level, as a cheap product,” said the winery's oenologist, Salvi Moliner.

“You have to find quality products and quality markets but today it continues to be easier to sell younger cava.”

To change this image the association of small and medium sized cava producers is promoting the drink at congresses and among opinion makers in English speaking nations.

It is also working to promote tourism in the cava making region by taking advantage of its proximity to Barcelona, one of Europe's most visited cities.

“Our visitors are our best promoters. We treat them well, they tell their friends about cava when they return home. It is not fast but it is more lasting,” said Guilera, the association's head.

The association has set an ambitious goal: to boost sales of high-end cavas by 40 percent within a decade.

“It requires a great collective effort but it is possible given the high quality of the product we make,” Guilera said.

By Daniel Bosque

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FOOD AND DRINK

Why do they pour cider like that in Spain’s Asturias?

The green northern region’s drink of choice is cider but it’s the method waiters have of pouring it from a great height that catches the attention of ‘out-ciders’.

Why do they pour cider like that in Spain's Asturias?

They say Asturian blood is 50 percent water and 50 percent cider, and given the 40 million bottles produced every year in the region, it doesn’t seem too hard to believe.

However, it’s the method of serving cider in Asturias which really captures the imagination. 

The bottle will either come attached to a contraption which sucks up the cider and splurts it into a wide but thin-rimmed glass.

Or the waiter will come out every few minutes to grab your bottle and glass, lift the former high up with one arm and the latter down low around waist height before pouring some of the cider into the glass from at an arm’s length. 

There’s even a verb for this action – escanciar – to decant.  

The objective is for the cider to be shaken and aerated so that its natural carbon dioxide ‘awakens’.

When it is poured from above and hits the glass, carbon dioxide bubbles are produced that make the aroma of the cider come alive.

It’s good and normal for there to be splashback when pouring Asturian cider, but the aim is still to get most of it in the glass. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

These bubbles go away quickly so once served, the customer should quickly drink the culín (small bottom) up in one swig. 

The action of escanciar imitates how cider would be traditionally served when it went directly from big oak barrels to the glass, as cider has been the drink of choice in Asturians since before Roman times. 

READ ALSO: Why Spaniards’ habit of drinking alcohol every day is surprisingly healthy

This is after all natural cider which doesn’t come with the sugar, additives and pre-carbonated mixes of brands such as Strongbow, Magners or Kopparberg.

“It took me some time to get the hang of pouring cider, I missed the mark a lot, and my arm used to get very tired at first,” a Latin American waitress at a bar in Gijón told The Local Spain. 

Many sidrerías (cider houses) and restaurants have cylindrical tubes on wheels where escanciadores (the waiters in charge of pouring cider) can put the glass in to avoid making a mess on the floor or splashing customers, as there is always some splatter even if they don’t completely miss the mark. 

A waiter pours cider for customers at a cider bar in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo (Photo by RAFA RIVAS / AFP)

The more old-school chigres (cider house in Asturian) prefer to have sawdust all over the floor to absorb the spilt cider.

To pour, tirar (throw) or escanciar (decant) cider like an Asturian, you should tilt the bottle slowly from above and aim for the cider to hit the top part of the inside side of the glass, which has to be held at a 45-degree angle. It’s this that brings out the effervescence out in la sidra natural.  

So when you visit the beautiful region of Asturias and you tuck into their famously ample servings of fabada asturiana (Asturian bean stew) or cachopo (meat, cheese and ham all together in breadcrumbs), washed down with one or two bottles of sidra, now you’ll understand what’s behind this eye-catching tradition.

READ ALSO: Eight fascinating facts about Spain’s Asturias region

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