CAVA: SPAIN

Codorníu Original
Espana: Catalunya (Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, Penedés) - about 40 km south of Barcelona
A Blend: 40% Macabeo, 30 % Parellada, 20 % Xarel·lo, 10 % Reserve wine (sparkling white)
Non-Vintage
$8.99
87 pts
Had the Codorníu Original cava for the first time on Christmas day 2010, in Sarasota, Florida. Purchased three 187 ml bottles at Publix to enjoy with various deserts (i.e., cannoli and cheese cake) and this pairing worked very nicely, with the floral and mineral aspects of the wine complementing rich pastries. The color on this light Spanish sparkler is a soft pale yellow. The nose is stingy, offering floral notes. But the taste is pleasant: while a bit bland, lacking a distinct character, it's also very easy-drinking. Pear dominates in terms of fruit, but there's some apple present, too. The back end features good floral flavors, with minerality close behind. As for length, there's not much to write home about. While this cava won't blow you away, it's a wonderful option (at a great price) for serving with desert: it certainly won't overpower the flavors of the pastries, especially cheese-based pastries, and, in fact, it enhances the flavors. The sparkle is minimal on this wine, but it's just enough to give one that sense of a special occasion (and playfulness) that makes sparkling wine unique. And like all cavas, the alcohol content, at 11.5%, is lower than most wines, making it ideal for serving later in the evening.

Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava
Espana: Catalunya (Penedés)
A Blend: 50% Macabeo, 35% Parellada, 15% Xarel-lo (sparkling white)
Non-Vintage
$8.99
88+ pts
Went to see our cousin Phil Angotti, quite a talented singer-songwriter-player, play at The Elbo Room in Chicago recently, and while this fun old-school music bar has a typically banal wine list--the usual Pinot Grigios, Merlots and friends, along with a very strong beer line-up--they had a cava on the list, so throwing image to the dogs, I stood there in a rock 'n roll bar on a Saturday night with Dana and Max and Leslie and sipped my crisp Spanish cava from a flute, while all around me consumed appropriately masculine beverages in dark, thick glass bottles. But I was glad I did. The Sugura Viudas Brut Reserva cava is a very nice, pleasing sparkler (not as enjoyable to me as my favorite Italian proseccos, mind you, but a good wine, nonetheless). I got tobacco on the nose--really strange, I think, for a white wine--but that's what I got. Also, the smell of flowers, which was nice. As for taste, for such an inexpensive wine, there's some good complexity here, probably requiring more than one glass for me to sort out. I definitely tasted a smokiness, the flowers I picked up on the nose, good minerality, and a little fruit, too (apple, I think). That's an awful lot going on for a discount-priced sparkler from Spain...and it all works well together, coherent, with a decent length. The only thing that keeps me from giving this wine a MUST TRY rating of 89 or higher is that, for my palette, I prefer a bit more of the minerality and little less of the herbs and flowers, so for me, it's about the nature of the balance. But in a way, that's nit-picking: this is a great wine at a really good price, and I think a lot of people will enjoy it as much as I did, if not more.