The summer heat passes with bubbles

If water is the drink that quenches thirst, and science says so, sparkling wine makers add that bubbles also help. At least, that's what sparkling wine sales data tells them, which spike in June, starting with St. John's Day, and continue throughout the summer, and are linked to the high sales of the months leading up to Christmas, another major milestone for sparkling wines.

Thus, bubbles continue to be consumed seasonally in our country, in the summer and at Christmas. During the rest of the year, especially in the freezing months of January and February, the joy of feeling the boom due to the opening of the cork stopper of sparkling wine, and for drinking it, it decreases. in the last quarter." This fact does not mean that the winter months, when Catalonia seems to have nothing to celebrate with sparkling wines, are bad for wineries, because they have another outlet, which is exports.

On summer evenings in June and July, the wineries grouped under the Corpinnat brand celebrated the Corpinnat Festival for the fifth consecutive year. This consists of outdoor dinners at the wineries themselves with renowned chefs. It all began during the pandemic, in the summer when going out was allowed with safety measures, masks, and social distancing. Then, during a video meeting, winemaker Ton Mata suggested holding a dinner that summer at the Recaredo winery to encourage sparkling wine consumption and restaurant-prepared food. Mata proposed the proposal for his winery, but the idea took off, and after more "Team" meetings—as they are called due to the videoconferencing program they used—the dinners were held at all the wineries affiliated with the European Union-recognized Corpinnat brand. Today, five years later, the dinners fill the venues weeks in advance, and it's safe to say that the pleasant temperatures of summer nights encourage sparkling wine consumption. The wineries open their best wines at mealtimes, show them at the tables, and don't allow the drink to warm up in the glass, because the waiters will immediately come to refill them or show you another wine. Meanwhile, the chefs, who have moved their kitchens to the winery's spaces for a day, bring the dishes to the table. The winery patios are transformed into open-air restaurants, lit by strings of bulbs, with tables set with white tablecloths, and the winery owners serving as waiters, upstairs and downstairs. These are nights when everyone is busy.

At the dinner organized by the Llopart winery with the cuisine of Marc RibasEster Cardús, a sixth-generation Llopart winemaker, claimed that bubbly consumption pointed to a deseasonalization, that is, consumption outside of specific dates. "It used to be Christmas, but high temperatures and, above all, the public's search for cool drinks has meant that bubbly is now drunk year-round," she said. This theory is corroborated by other winemakers, who link bubbly consumption with a preference for white wine over red.

The pendulum swings of fashion

The freshness of white and sparkling wines is what consumers seek, as they think that well-aged red wines are difficult to swallow. However, this theory could lead one to believe that, on the contrary, white and sparkling wines are young and lacking in complexity. "That's not the case because long-aged sparkling wines are very fresh," says Cardús of the Llopart winery, which is also the case with white wines.

On this point, the Danish winemaker Peter Sisseck claims that the current trend of drinking fresh wines and sparkling wines is just that, a trend."In the wine world, there are always pendulum swings that go from one side to the other; so there will come a time when the pendulum will swing back toward red wines," says the biodynamic winemaker, who makes wines in Ribera del Duero and Bordeaux. The same goes for alcohol-free wines, which he also interprets as a trend that will pass, but this topic is a different story, and today is summer and we're talking about bubbles.

To understand the summer passion for bubbly, there's another factor that could shed some light: consumption by the glass. More and more, bars and restaurants are offering sparkling wines by the glass. It's not necessary to pay the full price of a bottle, because you can drink a glass just as if you were ordering a drink packaged in milliliters (ml). Furthermore, some wineries have begun to make sparkling wines with a lower alcohol content. "In Llopart, we make brante wine, with bubbles, and a 10% alcohol content. It's a pearly wine, made from red Xarel lo, with which we think we can seduce young people." The goal is for young people to drink brante wine like beer, says Ester Cardús.

Meanwhile, in Formentera, The chef Nandu Jubany serves in the restaurants Can Carlitos or Es Còdol Foradat Signature sangrias, he calls them, made with sparkling wines. We associate sangrias with drinks for indiscreet tourists, and we've been rejecting them and perhaps even forgetting them. On the contrary, chef Nandu Jubany proves every summer that sangria has prestige and that it's a festive, fresh, and appealing drink. It's all about the way you prepare and serve it. And also the way you present it on the menu, because his sparkling sangrias are signature. And good. Plus, they create a domino effect: the moment a pitcher of sparkling sangria appears on a table, the surrounding ones will want some too.

Finally, despite these increases in summer sparkling wine consumption, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), alcohol consumption decreased during 2024, as it had in the previous two years. There are many theories that specialists offer to explain the phenomenon, and among others, there is a generation that seeks a healthy lifestyle, with low alcohol consumption. Hence, many wineries have embarked on the path of producing other low-alcohol beverages, such as kombutxa tea (the Alta Alella winery, from the DO Cava, and also Vall Llach, from the DOQ Priorat), beers (also the case with the Alta Alella winery), and other beverages, such as the brante wine from the Llopart winery. These are new times for the world of bubbly, which will undergo further changes in the coming years.

Cava sangria (for 6 people)

• 1 bottle of brut nature sparkling wine
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• 1 ripe peach, diced 50 ml light liqueur (such as peach schnapps)
• 2 tablespoons of cane sugar (optional; no need to add it)
• Mint leaves
• Cubes

Place the ingredients in this order, mix them with a long spoon, and serve in glasses.