Sparkling wine was first produced in 1872 in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia (province of Barcelona) in north-east Spain in what is now the DO area of Penedès by Josep (José) Raventós i Fatjó (1816-1885). He is therefore considered to be the creator of the first sparkling wine produced in Spain using the traditional method. However, Antoni Galí Comas, who has largely been forgotten today, is said to have experimented with the production of sparkling wine as early as 1850.

Luis Justo y Villanueva (1834-1880), laboratory director of the Sant Isidre Agricultural Institute, who taught the champagne method to several producers, is also credited. At a competition in Barcelona in 1872, three of his students presented sparkling wines. However, it is undisputed that José Raventós, as head of the Codorníu cava house, was the first to produce sparkling wine from the now typical Parellada, Xarello and Macabeo grape varieties, which he launched on the market in 1879. In doing so, he laid the foundations for the Cava industry in Spain.

Naming

At that time, the sparkling wine was still called Xampagny (Champána in Castilian) in reference to champagne. The name Cava did not become established until the 1960s. In Spain, a distinction is made between cava and bodega, both of which mean winery. However, while a bodega is a building at ground level, a cava is built underground. Sparkling wine matures best in cool temperatures and winegrowers have long called their above-ground products bodega wines and the sparkling wines produced underground cava.

DO area Cava

When Spain joined the EU in 1986, the DO area of Cava was established, adding a geographical component. The designation "Cava" was now linked to the production method and origin. For historical reasons, certain municipalities in the regions of Aragon, Rioja, Valenciana and Extremadura were included in the Cava appellation. This meant that it was not a geographically contiguous area. A total of 159 municipalities were defined, most of which are located in Catalonia.

However, some of them are widely scattered in still wine regions such as Ampurdán-Costa Brava, Calatayud, Campo de Borja, Cariñena, Costers del Segre, Extremadura, Navarra, Ribera del Guadiana, Rioja, Tarragona and Utiel-Requena (all the relevant...