That cava is more than just a ‘copy’ from champagne is something you could already read in one of my previous blogposts. Since that day I had the pleasure tasting more premium cava’s from which 1 jumped out for me. A premium cava is a more refined cava or to use the more professional words Special Cuvées, Reserva’s and Gran Reserva’s that have had minimum aging of 15 months. What the aging does to a Cava (or a sparkling wine in general) is mostly ‘calming’ down the bubbles 🙂 If you drink a Cava or Champagne that had less aging time the bubbles in it will be much more aggressive or extra brut… if you give the sparkling wine more time to age/ rest the bubbles will be more subtle and refined. This is also why I give the preference to premium Cava (or sparkling wines that aged a bit more), as when the bubbles are too aggressive I get a headache 😦 .
To come back to the Cava that jumped out, it was the 2014 Organic cava named Bruant from the AA Privat Bodega. Organic, indeed… strange that an organic wine jumps out for me as normally wines that are too Bio/ organic have a taste that just ain’t my cup of tea… whereas in this case the Bodega has created something wonderful. All other cava’s I tried at the same time as the Bruant (about 7 or 8 others) were very good, but the Bruant just had that extra ‘punch’ and harmony. It even made me shut up for a while, which is a difficult thing to happen as I love talking a lot 😉 This is also why I’m only writing about the Bruant and not about the other ones… FYI this is my personal taste obviously, it might be possible that if you would have tried all of them that you would have given preference to one of the others like the Reserva brut from Carles Andreu or a Reserva Real from Bodega Freixenet (that are also fantastc cava’s btw) . The moment you are drinking it will also always have an influence…
AA Privat or better Alta Alella Privat is a winery that was only founded 20 years ago by renowned enologist Josep Maria Pujol-Busquets and his wife only 10km outside Barcelona (making it the closest vineyard to Barcelona) right at the Mediterranean sea. They might only be doing this on their own for 20 years, but we can say for sure they created a success as they are on the wine list of some the best restaurants in the world!! The Bruant was even the ‘house’ cava from the 2nd best restaurant in the world El Celler de Can Roca (where I was already fortunate enough to have dined). It was also the first cava ever to get a +90 score from Robert Parker. So it is not just me liking this cava 🙂
Alta Alella is a organic (natural) winery located in the 4000 Hectare Natural park of Serralada de Marina (of which they use around 60Ha). The AA estate is working mostly according the micro vinification technique. This basically means they use a technique where the wine is fermented in small vats. Micro vinification allows a winemaker to express the most natural ‘unadulterated’ characteristics of a single territory. So it doesn’t get more natural then this 🙂 Just by the fact I like Bruant a lot and by seeing the above pictures I feel a next wine trip presenting itself 🙂 I also doubt it will take me more than a year 😉
To come back to the Bruant . What I liked about this cava was the purity (0 dosage – so no added sugars) and refined bubbles that are almost not visible by the eye and very subtle at the taste. It has the most magnificent inviting aromas of fresh flowers and white fruits which also translates itself in the taste. I’m sure that even if one doesn’t know anything about wine will appreciate this cava (an every man’s friend if you will) . I know that I can obviously say a lot, the only way for you to see if I’m right is by tasting it 😉 but I’m sure it will not disappoint!!
It was also funny finding out that the person importing the AA Privat wines used to be an SAP consultant just like me (even the same modules) 🙂 Maybe I should also change career and leave SAP for what it is??!!
I know if might seems like I’m trying to sell you something, but it’s not (not in this article, nor in all my other articles). I’m just trying to convince you to basically try something new and to be amazed :-). Go for quality and not a quantity product… I also hope next time you are in a shop and you don’t know what bubbles to take that you’ll maybe try a bottle of Premium (Reserva or Gran Reserva) Cava instead of of Champagne or ‘cheap’ bubbles’ made by a company only caring for quantity (although it must be said that not all cheap bubbles are bad, but some are 🙂 ) and that you’ll notice that a product like Cava deserves more respect as a product and don’t see it as just a ‘cheap’ wannabe Champagne.
Where to buy? For my Belgian readers check: http://www.oinosshop.be/
For my foreign readers check: http://www.altaalella.wine/
For all questions regarding Premium cava you contact the cava association
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