Cava Reclaims Its Identity and Charts a New Way Forward

Eduard Viader grabs a bottle from a riddling rack, pulls off the metal brace that secured the cork, and with his index finger covering the closure to keep it from flying off, uses his clawlike wrench to ease the cork out of the bottle. As soon as the bubbles rise into the neck, he yanks off the cork, and a cap of dead yeast cells shoots out. He spins the bottle to tamp down the fizz and turns it upright. Now he can top it off and re-cork it. Viader is among the few Cava producers who use not a crown cap but a cork stopper on his Gran Reserva before disgorgement because, he says, it adds to the wine’s aromatic complexity. Unlike other producers, he also does not freeze the necks of his bottles, which would simplify removing the yeast cap. Still, he can hand-disgorge 250 bottles an hour.

That’s how things are at Muscàndia. A sole proprietor-winemaker, who grows four hectares of organic Macabeo grapes on Finca Can Rossell de La llena—the 700-year-old estate he acquired five years ago in Valls d’Anoia-Foix, a subappellation of the Domain of Origin for Cava producers in Spain’s northern Penedès region—Viader does everything artisanally. On his and the other organic vineyards from which he sources, he hand-harvests separate lots, then micro-ferments them with native yeast to create the palette of wines he blends for Cava in the off-grid cellar he built into the bones of a 19th-century winery on his estate.

Once they’re bottled, he riddles his Cavas the old way, turning them by hand because the process “respects the aromas,” he says, more than an automated riddler does. The 36-year-old has patience, too. In old cement tanks sunk into the floor, he is storing 400 bottles from each vintage to test their ageability. As caramelly and cake-spicy as tres leches cake but with a cleansing finish, his Muscàndia Gran Reserva Brut Nature Eco 2017—a classic Cava blend of fruity Macabeo, tannic Xarel-lo, and acid-forward Parellada grapes—spends five years on the lees. He plans to release a 10-year-old Cava in 2025.

All this might seem surprising for a producer of a Spanish sparkling wine known for mass production and rock-bottom prices. But Viader says, “We have done a bad job by thinking that Cava has to be cheap. We need to focus on the top quality. When big companies say Prosecco is the reference—no, Champagne is.”

Cava is made, not like Prosecco, which carbonates in the tank during second fermentation, but like Champagne, using secondary fermentation in the bottle to produce its bubbles. It is always aged, sometimes a decade or longer. Yet, of the quarter billion bottles sold globally, most is young and inexpensive, a category called Cava de Guarda. Higher in quality, Cava de Guarda Superior accounts for just 11 percent of sales. And one producer, Freixenet, sells over 40 percent of all Cava worldwide. It and other négociants source grapes, juice, even base wine that they label as their own, from throughout the D.O.’s growing regions, which include areas of Spain far afield of Cava’s native Penedès.

Still, change is afoot in Cava. After decades of category domination by large négociants, the leadership of D.O. Cava, the wine’s regulatory body, has finally adopted the perspective of grower-vintners like Viader. With new standards, designations, and subappellations, they’re working to ensure the quality and reputation of this traditional-method sparkling wine. Given this newfound support for producers of terroir-driven, long-aged wines whose products remain affordable, there’s never been a better time to explore Cava, especially on a trip to Penedès, where you can sample wines like Muscàndia that aren’t available in the States.

In Catalonia to do just that, I was in the audience at the first-ever D.O. Cava meetings in November last year when D.O. president Javier Pagés announced, “It is clear that Cava, which is open to so many amazing possibilities, is having quite a moment.” The moment was forced upon it. In 2019, nine top producers eschewed the D.O. and formed their own association, Corpinnat. They were following another producer, Pepe Raventós of Raventós i Blanc, who left the D.O. in 2012. Still others labeled their wines D.O. Clàssic Penedès instead of D.O. Cava. All were frustrated by Cava’s low-cost, mass-produced image.

The defections created a crisis for D.O. Cava, particularly in the international market. Several of Corpinnat’s current 11 members—Gramona, Recaredo, Llopart—are favorites of American sommeliers. “I don’t have that much Cava on our menus. I have Corpinnat, Clàssic, and my friend Pepe,” says Jordi Paronella, wine director of José Andrés’ Group. Sales of Cava were down more than 13 percent in the U.S. in 2023.

Lengthy aging distinguishes these wines, adding balancing brioche, earth, and spice notes to the grapes’ natural acidity.

In response, the D.O. made changes. It increased standards for its Cava de Guarda Superior subcategories, raising aging from 15 to 18 months minimum for the Reserva and 30 months for Gran Reserva. Vineyards must be at least 10 years old and, by 2025, 100 percent organic, with maximum yields of just 10,000 kilos per hectare. The vintage must be indicated on the label. Lengthy aging distinguishes these wines, adding balancing brioche, earth, and spice notes to the grapes’ natural acidity. A wine like the Juvé & Camps Reserva de la Familia 2018, for example, offers tense acidity and freshness but with an undertone of elegant humidor and wild herbs. The Organic Brut Gran Reserva 2014 from 10th-generation producer Cava Bolet offers a deep Calvados aroma, ripe apple flavor, and a touch of sherry-like oxidation. Printed on the label, its category bespeaks its complexity.

Regulations for the top Guarda Superior category—Paraje Calificado, or single-vineyard wines—are even stricter. Yields are 8,000 kilos per hectare, and aging is 36 months. These wines benefit from the D.O.’s recent parsing of Penedés’ Comtats de Barcelona growing region into five terroir-driven zones that producers can now indicate on their labels. (Though critics like Paronella think Cava should only come from Catalonia, the D.O. did the same with the Ebro Valley outside of Catalonia, breaking it into two subzones.) Alta Alella Mirgin Exeo Paratge Qualificat Vallcirera 2017, a blend of Xarel-lo and Chardonnay, has “a salty, bakery character, white flowers, fennel, peach, and a super-dry style and persistence,” says Paronella. The wine, “has lots of potential,” in part because “it is transparent about its terroir near the sea.”

Second-generation Alta Alella owner Mireia Pujol-Busquets agrees the wine “describes where and who we are”—grower-producers on schist soils tucked in the coastal Serra de Mar subzone north of Barcelona. “You can smell the seawater on the rocks in the retro nasal,” she says. The long, conical bottle heightens its sense of place, harkening back to a Catalonian bottle shape from before the D.O. was established.

Paronella even lauds the Paraje Calificadowines of mega négociant Codorníu. A Blanc de Noirs with more than 90 months of aging, Codorníu Ars Collecta Paraje Calificado El Tros Nou 2010 comes from shale soils in Serra de Prades, the coldest Catalonian subzone. It offers fermented vanilla bean aroma, a butterscotch mid-palate, and a refreshing finalé. Such a wine proves that, when terroir is respected and the wine is long-aged, even a company churning out more than 30 million bottles per year can produce one that sommeliers of Paronella’s status can declare “beautiful.”

Still, to differentiate négociants from grower-producers, the D.O. created the Elaborador Integral stamp, indicating wines where the majority of the grapes are estate grown, and all fruit is estate pressed, vinified, and bottled. There are 15 Elaborador Integral producers at present. A visit to Parés Baltà, where the Cusiné family has cultivated grapes since 1790, showed me how Elaborador Integral wines can express place and tradition. Joan Cusiné gave me a tour of the family’s vineyards in the Valls d’Anoia-Foix, pointing out pre-Roman ruins on wooded hillsides and swimming holes in the rivers after which the subzone is named.

The terroirs on the Cusiné’s five biodynamic estates range from loamy, chalky soils planted with Xarel-lo and Macabeo, to stony hilltops, where Parellada gains freshness. Vinified from all three indigenous grapes by winemakers María Elena Jiménez and Marta Casas, Cusiné’s wife and sister-in-law respectively, Parés Baltà Històric 2018 spends three years on lees for a cherry aroma and palate that mingles toffee and lemon peel.

“My grandfather used to harvest those grapes for bulk wine,” says Cusiné. “We wanted to make it like that, but better.” Named for his mother, Cuvée de Carol 2013, a Brut Nature, had stayed on lees 90 months. Cusiné says it was “created to transmit the character of Macabeo” sourced from 70-year-old bush vines grown in the foothills on the family’s 500-year-old Cal Miret estate. While Chardonnay brought the briskness, the long-aged Macabeo yielded a striking roast apricot flavor.

You wouldn’t know looking at its minimalist front label that Cuvée de Carol is an Elaborador Integral Gran Reserva. The wine speaks for itself. Still, the amount of information that can go on Cava labels now is a lot to take in. “Having all these classifications is too much. It’s confusing. It’s hard to explain and understand Cava,” says Paronella.

Yet, Cava makers like Viader are encouraged. “With this Elaborador designation and the zonification of the appellation, it is much better. Customers can know more about my philosophy: all vinified in my cellar, with my own grapes or grapes from viticulturalists that are close to the cellar,” says Viader, who will seek Elaborador Integral status in 2025.

“There’s a structure in Catalonia where it’s hard to innovate,” another young winemaker, Oriol Massana, the 10th generation at Celler Eudald Massana, told me. “But Cava is changing. All the changes that add value to the product are very welcome.” Massana’s family has been innovating for decades. Nearly a quarter century ago, they were among the first to go organic. In 2007, they started farming their 30-hectare estate biodynamically. Now they’ve created one of two sulfur-free Cavas on the market, a floral, toasty Brut Nature called Innat. Massana hasn’t committed to Elaborador Integral yet—“There’s always a cost associated with categories and certifications, and for it to be worth it, it must be known to the consumer,” he says—but the wine’s label reads Collit I elaborate a la finca (estate grown and vinified). “Nowadays, more producers are looking for their identity to be attached to the wine they produce.”

I discovered several producers putting their signature on Cava through innovation. Some are turning out fascinating single varietals. Aged 60 months, Sumarroca’s Núria Claverol Homenatge Finca Peretes Brut Gran Reserva 2015 is made entirely from estate-grown, organic, old-vine Xarel-lo. It offers umami intensity. For her Albertde Vilarnau Fermentado en Castaño Gran Reserva 2016, Eva Plazas Torné, winemaker at Vilarnau, blends stainless steel–fermented Xarel-lo with the same grape vinified in old-school chestnut barrels. It has a candied pineapple prickliness with a touch of the wood’s potpourri.

The interplay between aging and acidity makes Cava a natural food wine. At a meal in its cellar in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, the town where Cava is believed to have originated in 1872, Canals & Munné’s X10 Xarel-lo Brut Nature Gran Reserva 2011’s briny, bitter-herb finish cut through the fat of cured meats and cheeses and complemented fire-roasted artichokes. At Carballeira, a seafood restaurant in Barcelona, a wildly aromatic CS Gran Reserva 2015 from Elaborador Integral producer Agustí Torelló Mata had the character of a lemon turnover, mirroring both the bright, creamy sauce and the deep sear on a whole, grilled monkfish.

“A lot of affordable Champagne hasn’t had that much time on the lees, and it’s too acidic. These Cavas are not as acidic, and with all that aging, they’re just amazing with food.”—Mary Gorman McAdams

“The word that comes to me is gastronomic, with all of that tertiary and autolytic development,” says Master of Wine Mary Gorman McAdams, referring to the characteristics that arise from aging and lees contact. “To get this development in Champagne, I would be paying significantly more. A lot of affordable Champagne hasn’t had that much time on the lees, and it’s too acidic. These Cavas are not as acidic, and with all that aging, they’re just amazing with food.”

The work to improve Cava is ongoing. Thousands of growers provide Cava’s 345 vintners with fruit or juice. Their grapes are “the cheapest in the world,” says Master of Wine Pedro Ballesteros, “too cheap to be replaced.” Growers have lacked the leverage to demand better pay from huge houses like Friexenet and Cordoníu. If they hope to meet the D.O.’s new standards, how can wineries ask growers to improve their farming when they’re paying all of 30 cents per kilo, as compared to Champagne’s 7 euros?

With the D.O. mandating low-yield, organic harvests for the better wines, Cava’s grape supply might not be devalued much longer. On a recent trip through the region, McAdams asked every Cava producer she met what they paid their growers. She got answers of 65 and 70 cents a kilo. “That’s a big jump. There is a conscious effort. To get people moving in the right direction on this is huge,” she says. “And the quality of the wines is there.”

A wine like Massana’s Eudald Brut Nature Reserva 2020 proves her right on the quality. An old-vine estate blend with a lovely orchard-fruit flavor, it is the kind of Cava that, with the D.O.’s help, can push other producers in a similar direction. “The new categorizations improved the D.O. image and encouraged more producers to invest in higher-quality Cava because there’s finally recognition of it,” Massana told me, as we enjoyed the wine alongside a slow-roasted dish of duck and prunes. Then he mentioned another job that leadership is just undertaking. “Cava has huge potential, and I think there is a change in the D.O.’s heart. But now there’s still a lot to do. The D.O. must explain it to the world because there are many good producers in the wine region with amazing value to discover.”