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Like champagne, cava comes in different degrees of sweetness. The
following are the categories according to sugar content, although
the characteristics of different wines may mean one manufacturer's
seco tastes as sweet as another's semi-seco:
Brut Nature - (no added sugar) up to 3 g per litre
Extra Brut - up to 6 g per litre
Brut - up to 15 g per litre
Extra seco - between 12 and 20 g per litre
Seco - between 17 and 35 g per litre
Semi-seco - between 33 and 50 g per litre
Dulce - more than 50 g per litre
You will also see terms like Brut de Brut (very dry), Brut
Gran Reserva Vintage... It is often thought that brut
cava is somehow superior to the others, which is not true, although
it may be more versatile. Because of the custom of saving the cava
for the toast at weddings and other social occasions, it is also
thought that cava is only suitable for the end of the meal, which
is emphatically not the case. Cava, according to the wine critic
Carlos Delgado, is "one of the few wines which can be drunk
throughout a meal, simply by moving from brut to dulce,
as long as there is no strong-flavoured meat dish." Delgado,
somewhat snobbishly, also considers that "cava is always preferable
towards the beginning of the meal," an elitist opinion perhaps
related with the association between cava and (expensive) seafood.
 Cava
is usually made by the coupage method, whereby must (grape
juice) from different varieties of grape is subjected to the first
fermentation, then mixed until the blend is consistent with the
wine to be produced. The advantage of this is that a particular
brand of cava will taste the same every year. It also means that
most cava does not carry a year on the bottle, as must from different
years is often used. Some are always made using the same grape variety, in which case
the year will be indicated on the bottle: these are superior and
evidently more expensive cavas. After the coupage, the wine
is put into bottles and yeast and sugar added. It is then left for
the second fermentation and aging. This lasts a minimum of nine
months and may be up to three or four years, for a very special
cava. A process called "riddling and disgorging" is then
carried out. The bottles are stored nearly upside down so that the
sediment settles on the corks and riddled, turned, for a period
of thirty days. "Disgorging" is when the corks are removed,
together with the sediment (usually with the help of a freezing
process). Expedición, "passing liquor," a blend
of the same wine as that in the bottle and others, together with
the required amount of sugar, is then added in order to replace
the lost wine and make the final flavour. Evidently, this process
needs to be carried out very quickly. New corks are then put in
and fastened on with the wire clasp before the bottles are labelled.
Cava is sold ready for drinking and the "riddling and disgorging"
process means that the fermentation process is halted. Cava does
not improve with being kept, indeed it deteriorates with age: buy
it, store upright in a cool, not cold, place, for as little time
as possible, and drink it, preferably in the same week. Remember
that the sweeter the cava, the cooler it needs to be served: a brut
nature can be served practically at room temperature, but a
semi-seco should be well chilled.
ˇSalud!
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