Cava

DO CAVA
It is a decentralized institution of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment. It is made up of winemakers, producers and representatives of the autonomous communities of the “Cava Region” and the Ministry.

Its antecedents go back to 1959when the rules of trade for sparkling and aerated wines were established, where the term CAVA first appears. Subsequently, the Order of the Ministry of Agriculture of 23 April 1969 regulates sparkling and aerated wines and, in this way, sparkling wines made by the “classic system of fermentation in bottle and aging in cava are recognized as their own designation. ”And they can“ characterize their products with the name CAVA ”. This definition served as the basis for designating the product name.

It was in 1972 when the Ministerial Order of 27 July was promulgated and the Regulatory Council of Sparkling Wines was set up with a function comparable to that of the designations of origin. With this provision it is subject to its own regulations, in terms of elaboration, production and marketing.

Spain’s accession to the EU led to the equating of wines with DO to top category wines (quality wines psr). Prior to the Accession Treaty, Cava was the only specific Spanish designation that had its own structure, identical to that of designations of origin; the difference lay in the delimitation of the area and, for this reason, at the beginning of 1986 the “Cava Region” was established, which delimited the production area. Thus, Cava is protected from the EU and recognized as a quality sparkling wine produced in a given region (veqprd).
Vineyards
The vine varieties authorized to produce grapes for the elaboration of base wine and Cava are the following:

White varieties: Macabeo, Xarel.lo, Parellada, Malvasía and Chardonnay.
Red varieties: Red Grenache, Monastrell, Pinot Noir and Trepat.