The un-Cava, Cava

Checking what's under the hood in bubble land

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As shown in the report on the Corpinnat sparkling wines, there’s no debate as to the solid momentum behind this association. What started as a group of six ‘rogue’ high-quality sparkling winemakers abandoning the Denomination of Origin Cava has turned into a serious bubbly force to be reckoned with.

I feel like the larger question being asked now isn’t, “Why would someone leave DO Cava?” and much more, “Why wouldn’t someone join Corpinnat?”

While it may seem a rather obvious direction to take, there are vast and varied barriers to join, all of which revolve around why Corpinnat was created in the first place.

There are many wineries within DO Cava who aren’t producing their own wines and are in fact buying in bottled-wines from others within the region–a perfectly legal thing to do, but it says nothing about one’s ‘estate’. There are also those who aren’t farming organically which is a core tenet to be amongst the ranks of Corpinnat.

Then there are those (such as the recently de-Cava-ed, en-Corpinatt-ed Juvé & Camps) who may do everything else according to the rules of Corpinnat but use a significant amount of French varieties. The main culprits in this particular issue are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay which exist due to sparkling producers in Spain wanting to emulate the grapes used in Champagne. All of these foreign grape varieties are to be completely phased out from Corpinnat production by 2035. I suspect most wineries in the association will arrive to this point much earlier if they haven’t already.

There is however yet another reason that a winery would continue under the auspices of DO Cava and we see that with Art Laietà, previously known as Alta Alella.