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 Targeted
to be announced before the end of 2016, the decision was delayed due to
bureaucratic hurdles (and we thought India had the monopoly!); the 12
wines have been fully certified by the Tasting panel, to be designated
as Cava de Paraje Calificado. Following is the approved list awaiting
the gazetted notification after which the labels may be changed officially
and sales made accordingly:
1. Vinyes de Can Martí – Torelló 225 Brut Nature
Gran Reserva
2. Turó d’en Mota – Recaredo
3. Serral del Vell – Recaredo Brut de Brut (Brut Nature)
4. Vallcirera – Alta Alella Mirgin Gran Reserva
5. La Capella – Juvé i Camps
6. Can Sala – Freixenet Casa Sala
7. La Pleta – Codorníu
8. El Tros Nou – Codorníu
9. La Fideuera – Codorníu
10. Can Prats – Vins el Cep Claror (Bio-dynamic)
11. Font de Jui – Gramona III Lustros
12. Terroja – Castellroig Reserva de la Familia
As might be expected, the Cavas are from some of the top producers of
D.O. Cava which has been going through some turmoil during the past few
years because of huge quality variations, with several ultra cheap  sparkling
wines flooding the market and damaging the reputation of a bubbly made
with Traditional Champagne making method and which was once second in
sales in the world only behind champagne but now overtaken by the leading
sparkling wine category, Prosecco, followed by champagne.
To qualify for the Cava de Paraje Calificado designation the wines have
to be produced from grapes grown in single vineyards that are at least
10 years old. Grapes must be hand-picked in the vineyard with a maximum
yield of 8 tons/ hA. Fermentation must be carried out at the estate only
and the wine must have a maximum yield of 48 hL/ hA. The second fermentation
must be carried out in the bottle for a minimum of 36 months, as compared
to the existing 30 month requirement for Grand Reserva. These Single Estate
Cavas may be produced as ‘Brut’.
It was predicted by delWine
in June last year that Gramona, Juvé & Camps, Cavas Recaredo
and Casa Sala, the historic estate of Freixenet, are a few of the labels
expected to join the new ranks. Labels from all these four estates have
been included in the top hierarchy. The powerful historical estate of
Codorniu, one of the pioneers of making Cava has 3 of the labels included
in the first List of 12.
La Pleta, El Tros Nou, and La Fideuera from Codorniu are 3 of their 5
Cavas recently presented as the Ars Collecta Codorníu collection.
The other two are Jaume Codorníu which was also a part of the 8
Grand Cavas tasted at the IWINTC Tasting, and ‘456’- a rare
Cava made to celebrate the 456 vintages of the winery founded in 1551,
and acclaimed to be the most expensive Cava in the history.
The Wine Park Mumbai imports two cava variants from Gramona including
Ill Lustros- aged for 7+years on lees. ‘It will be interesting
to see if Lustros gets the prestigious new label Gramona Cava de Paraje
Calificado!’ I had wondered in my article in delWine.
It turns out my hunch was on the button for this delicious, elegant example
of a high quality Cava.
Ill Lustros was also one of the Cavas tasted at a guided tasting conducted
by Sara Jane Evens MW at the International Wine Tourism Conference (IWINETC)
in Barcelona; one of the highlights. Can Sala was another one from Freixenet
(the affordable labels are imported by Aspri) that was a part of the exquisite
Tasting.
The concept of Cava de Paraje Calificado can be compared with ‘Gran
Selezione’- a new category of higher quality introduced by Chianti
Classico Consortium to differentiate the higher quality of certain variants
in an effort to boost the image of the wines and the appellation.
 Genesis
of the concept of Cava de Paraje may be summed up in the explanation given
by Frances Scala, Export Manager of the Sant Sadurni d’Anoia based
Cava producer Raventos i Blanc which has the original family ties with
Codorniu and is located right across the main historical winery of Codorniu.
He was visiting Delhi in February, 2013 and informed me at an exclusive
dinner that they had decided to pull out of the DO Cava appellation in
2014. Reason? ‘Due to its popularity every producer wants to make
Cava. It is disappointing that today Cava can be produced practically
in any part of Spain, of any quality. We keep high standards for a product
that was initiated by the ancestors of the family which had been also
involved in formulating the rules for the appellation,’ he said.
About 250 million bottles of Cava are produced every year, including
30 million of premium Cavas. Only about 450,000 bottles (2%) will qualify
for this ultra-premium variant eventually.
Codorniu was imported over a decade ago by Brindco but was discontinued
due to the marketing factors. Freixenet was also distributed by Global
Tax Free which did a very good job in the initial years but later on it
wavered substantially, After a gap of several years, the brand has been
brought back to India by Aspri which earlier imported Raventos i Blanc
which had to be discontinued due to higher prices.
With the awareness of sparkling wines increasing thanks to the entry
of Chandon India, it is rapidly becoming the fastest growing segment. With
the quality of Prosecco going down gradually because of bulk production
and the prices going up due to shortage of supply despite a production
of over 500 million bottles, Cava has a good chance of penetrating the
market if promoted properly. Cava de Paraje led by the Ill Lustro, and
other cavas from Gramona and quality producers will encourage more importers
to bring in the Spanish bubbly and with a segment of the consumer market
trading up as their palates evolve, one will hear more of ‘Paraje’
which is available for much less than the ordinary champagnes but in quality
compares with the high quality champagnes.
For our earlier related Articles on the subject, please visit
Cava de Paraje
Calificado: Top Quality Certification for Cava
IWINETC 2016:
Gramona Cava- Propelled to Top by Historical Accidents
IWINETC 2016:
Cava –The ‘Champagne’ of Spain
Subhash Arora
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