Spain’s most famous sparkling wine, Cava, has not seen smooth sailing over the last decade. In fact, it’s been rough waters ever since a key producer, Raventos I Blanc, decided to make terroir-specific sparkling wines under the new breakaway appellation Conca del Riu Anoia. This had the ripple effect of encouraging others to pull back from Cava, including Corpinnat, a nine-producer “club” focused on making terroir-specific wines in Penedes. Yet the producers that remain have refocused their energies on a premiumization drive that has helped elevate the overall quality of Cava.
Unlike Champagne, Cava is not a place but rather a style highlighting a traditional method of winemaking, in this case aging wines on the lees in a cellar, or “Cave.” And even though Catalonia continues to ride high as the epicenter of Cava in Spain, it is still produced in many other areas of the country.
