Did you celebrate the New Year with sparkling wine? If so, what kind did you choose? Sparkling wine is a crowded category, so you have lots of choices. Champagne? Prosecco? Maybe a Cap Classique wine from South Africa?
Cava vs Competition?
The Spanish Cava producers hope that you think of their wines when you make your sparkling wine shopping list, but it is a tough nut to crack with so much competition here in the U.S. market. Cava benefited from the rising sparkling tide in the last several years but has suffered from a “good value” reputation that hasn’t been a particular advantage in the premiumization era.
Cava has a bit of an identity crisis because it doesn’t exactly fit the usual ways we classify wines. Cava isn’t a region (like Champagne or Prosecco) or a grape variety either.
Like Champagne, Cava has its secondary fermentation in the bottle (the “Classical Method”), but you must never call it Spanish Champagne. Cava comes from Spain and is made in several regions, not one, so it is not in itself a geographic designation. Cava is made from native Spanish grape varieties, but it can also be made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the grapes of Champagne, or some combination of them all. So it isn’t one of those “signature varietal” wines, either.
In the past, to some degree at least, the identity crisis encouraged Cava producers to compete based on price. Consumers who weren’t sure exactly what Cava was would buy it because it was both good and very good value, with sweet and sour results. The sweet? Rising sales to the tune of almost a quarter billion bottles. The sour? Low prices mean tight margins, especially for winegrowers. The grower squeeze has increased for Cava, as it has elsewhere, as rising costs meet retail price ceilings. Something’s got to give and the hope is that final prices can be pushed up.
Cava Steps Up
How do you raise prices and margins without losing the customers who come for good value? One solution, which producers in many regions are working to implement just now, is to build a quality ladder and encourage buyers to climb to the next level. In Prosecco-land, for example, the ladder starts with Prosecco DOC wines, moves up to Prosecco Superiore Conegliano Valdobiaddene DOCG, then to the Rive-specific sites, and finally the top-shelf Cartizze wines.
Spanish wine drinkers are familiar with quality levels: Rioja, Rioja Reserva, Rioja Gran Reserva. And so Cava producers have created quality designations of their own. The categories based upon the length of bottle aging: Cava de Guarda (9+ months), Cava de Guarda Superior Reserva (18+ months), Cava de Guarda Superior Gran Reserva (30+ months), and finally Cava de Guarda Superior de Paraje Calificao (36+ months), which is made from grapes from a specific zone or sub-zone. The specific geographic designations seem to be a work in progress as they are not consistently highlighted on the labels we’ve seen, but they are another product differentiation tool to work with.
Style and Substance
Paul Hollywood, the genial judge on that popular UK baking show, is famous for telling nervous contestants that they must show both substance and style and this lesson applies to Cava and other wine regions today. Consumers don’t want to pay more for the same old wine. They might pay more for something better or different. But winemakers and sellers must first get buyers’ attention (the style part) so that they understand what they are getting, and then they must taste the difference (the substance) in the glass. The future of Cava will be shaped, at least in the short run, but how well style and substance come together.
Sue and I have been working our way through samples of next-level Cava. Here is the list with suggested retail prices and some thoughts about the wines we tasted.
Dominio de la Vega Cava Reserva Especial Brut Rose 2020 – $22
Dominio de la Vega Cava Reserva Especial Brut 2018 – $25
Roger Goulart Organic Reserva 2018 – $23
Roger Goulart Gran Reserva Josep Valls 2018 – $25
Vins El Cep Gelida Brut Gran Reserva 2018 – $24
Mestres Visol Brut Nature Gran Reserva 2016 – $41
Next Level Cava Substance
The wines we tasted are very good indeed, especially given their relatively affordable prices. As noted before, some of the wines are made with traditional Spanish grapes, some from Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, which are permitted for Cava, and some from combinations of French and Spanish grapes. All are made using the traditional method, which Cava producers see as a point of differentiation to rival Prosecco.
What did the wines have in common? First, they surprised the people who tasted them with us. More elegant and refined than expected. The Brut, Extra Brut, and Brut Nature wines are surprising by being even drier than the names suggest. More than enough substance to satisfy Mr. Hollywood, I think.
The Mestres Visol Brut Nature Gran Reserva was an extreme Cava experience worth noting. The base wines were held in a combination of stainless steel tanks and chestnut barrels. The second fermentation and bottle aging (under cork stoppers, not the usual metal crown caps) lasted six years! The 2016 wine was disgorged in 2022. Talk about going to extremes to make a point!
The result? A stunning wine. Still fresh, but much more complex than expected, with a long finish. Is this a philosopher’s Cava? It gives a sense of the direction that next level Cava is headed and, even if most of the Cava wines won’t go to this extreme, it is a bright star to follow.
Sue thought the Mestres was the most interesting wine we tasted, but it didn’t really remind her of Cava, which is something to consider. The “People’s Choice” wine was a Rosé of Pinot Noir from Dominio de la Vega. Delicious and delightful. And, alas, impossible to find here in the U.S. market. We tracked down the importer and he said he’d stopped carrying the wines. Disappointing. But that’s what happens sometimes when limited-production wines meet the many headwinds and hurdles of the complicated U.S. market structure.
Cava is changing, but that’s not news. One hundred years ago the wines were sweet and released pretty much as soon as possible. Dry with significant bottle age? Pretty radical in that context, but perhaps on the money today.
Avoiding the MEGO Effect
These next-level Cava wines are more expensive than the Cava wines we usually see in the market, which should send buyers a signal, but how is the differentiation communicated apart from price? If you look at the photo above, you’ll see seals and designations that tell the informed buyer the story of the wine. A good beginning.
I couldn’t find the designation seal on one of the wines, which puzzled me until I glanced at the top of the bottle. There I spied the round seal sitting elegantly atop the fat cork. I like the look, but a more obvious display has advantages, too.
Some of our sample wine bottles were cluttered with seals and designations of various types, which risks a MEGO (my eyes glaze over) effect. A clear, simple indicator (think Chianti Classico’s black rooster) would be welcome. I hope these wines can make a bigger dent in the on-trade market for Cava because the story of these next-level Cava wines lends itself to hand-selling.
Redneck Educators Unite!
Sue and I are familiar with this problem from our work last year with the Prosecco Superiore DOCG producers in Northern Italy. Their wines are an authentic step up from many of the best-selling Prosecco DOC products. Their terroir is very special and has been designated a Unesco World Heritage site. These are wines of place (or places, because the DOCG zone is far from homogenous), and you can taste the difference.
Getting consumers to understand the difference and to look for DOCG instead of DOC is a difficult proposition and it is not different for Cava. But the challenge is worth undertaking. I am reminded of a fellow we met years ago at a Walla Walla farmers market. He was selling organic meat he raised on his farm and he introduced himself as “a redneck educator” because he wasn’t selling organic goat meat, he said, he was educating people about what made his meat different and why they should be willing to pay more for it.
D.O. Cava, Prosecco Superiore, and everyone who aspires to the next level for their products is in the same boat. We are all redneck educators now.