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EDITORIAL
– FRANÇOIS GILBERT –
Editorial Director
CAVA MAKES ITS ENTRY INTO THE 21 ST CENTURY
The history of Cava admittedly began well after that of Champagne, but it
is directly inspired by it. A clutch of wines from France’s Marne region began
emerging in Spain at the turn of the 19 th century, and became a favourite tipple
of the country’s well-heeled imbibers, particularly the royal family. Seeing this,
Josep Raventos, the heir to wine cellars established in the mid-16 th century by
Jaume Codorníu, took an interest in this style of wine and made several trips
to Champagne in a bid to become proficient in the ‘Champagne method’. It
is thought that he produced the first bottle of Cava in the year 1872. His son
ingeniously chose to use, not Champagne varieties – Chardonnay, Pinot noir
and Meunier – but Catalan grapes Parellada, Macabeu and Xarello, which
distinctively shaped the character of the wine. Cava had finally been born and
its development was consolidated by the First World War, which prevented
Champagne from being exported for several years, boosting Cava sales in Spain.
The DO was established in 1991 and the entire country was made eligible for
the appellation. But in 2020, an in-depth reform led to a new classification
comprising zones and sub-zones, along with new categories, Cava de Guarda
and Cava de Guarda Superior. The issue is clearly about promoting the different
vineyard sites of a wine whose industrial image had firmly taken root. But
an image does not necessarily always reflect reality as our report on page 74
followed by our Winter 2021 selection at the end of this magazine show.
4 WINTER 2021 GILBERT & GAILLARD - THE FRENCH EXPERTS ON WINE