A lot of cava is aggressively bubbly and quite bitter but this cava shows Spain can give France a run for its money in sparkling wine.  Cava is the Spanish sparkling wine made in the champenoise method in Cataluña and some other regions in Spain.  The traditional grapes are Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel-lo, but increasingly Chardonnay is being used in the blend.   Unfortunately many Spaniards and foreigners are only exposed to the cheapest of cavas, the under 8€ crowd from big producers.  Few of these are any good and most are frankly, quite bad.  Cava is a good value, if very different alternative to champagne, but I don’t understand how anyone thinks it should be that cheap.  The great cavas are between 12 and 25 euros…above 25 euros I find small producer champagnes better for the money….few of the really high end cavas really impress me either.  My favorite cava producers are medium or smaller outfits, my all time favorites are any cavas from Gramona, Raventos I Blanc and Sumarroca.  One of the frustrations of living in Madrid is that many smaller Catalan producers don’t have good distribution here…internal Spanish political tensions affecting the wine market.  Just today, I had one of my top picks…this is the cava I drink the most….it’s a top quality wine, good value and readily available in Madrid.  The Gramona Brut Imperial is a steal at about 15€. It‘s a wonderful, mellow, wine-like cava, where apply fruit mixes with leesy, toasted aromas.  The mouth is round, fresh and the carbonic is terrific, super integrated and not at all aggressive.  The finish is very persistent with a very slight, pleasant bitterness.  This wine is a great example of the quality Gramona offers…this Penedés-based company also makes great still wines, dry and sweet.  Read on for more information on the Gramona Brut Imperial. 

This wine was the best of a few Spanish Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines we tried recently.  I liked it so much I bought a case for home use.  Many Spanish Cabernets have green fruit and/or over-ripe fruit…sometimes it has both at the same time!  It’s a challenge in some of the hotter areas to achieve tannic ripeness before the fruit aromas become over-ripe.