That the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Cava, which in addition to the traditional wineries of Penedès –90% of production is made in Catalonia– integrates others from territories such as Aragon, Navarre, La Rioja, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community and Extremadura, was not a very comfortable arrangement for some producers was already known. The product's visibility is not very uniform, probably due to the disparity of origins, and the state-level regulations governing the designation do not satisfy some producers.

In Sant Sadurní d’Anoia and in the Penedès region in general, everyone knew it would eventually happen, but no one knew when. The day has arrived. The Juvé & Camps winery, from Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, has abandoned the Cava designation of origin to enter its annual production of two and a half million sparkling wines into the Corpinnat brand. After two exhaustive audits in which Corpinnat verified that the winery meets the requirements to be included, Juvé & Camps submitted its withdrawal request to the Regulatory Council of Cava last Wednesday. "We have taken a natural step, and it was a decision made with great prudence," explains the CEO, Meritxell Juvé, adding that in a company that works with the future in mind, everything is well thought out. She says this because Juvé & Camps sparkling wines have a resting period of six to seven years before they are released to the market, and because the winery is centenary. "My father is 83 years old and is aware of everything. In fact, he himself says he won't make a mistake with the words Cava or Corpinnat, because he always says he makes Juvé & Camps," says his daughter.

Cava sales declined last year for the second consecutive year, according to a report released Wednesday by the Cava Designation of Origin Regulatory Board. The total number of bottles sold fell by 12.88% year-on-year to 190 million. Revenue reached €2.048 billion, 10% less than in 2014. This drop is attributed to the drought, according to Javier Pagés, president of the Cava DO. "The decline is not due to a lack of demand, but rather a lack of product," he stated. This decrease stems primarily from exports, which fell by 18.68%. In the Spanish market, the reduction was much more moderate, at 2.48% in volume. It should be noted that of the 190 million bottles sold, 60% of the Cava was destined for export. The first market was Belgium, the second the United States, and the third the United Kingdom. Of all the cava sold in Spain, 33.7% was in Catalonia. Germany, traditionally the first or second largest market, fell to fifth place.

Not one, not two. Three cavas, named after Núria Claverol and from the Sumarroca winery, have entered the pantheon of the Cava Designation of Origin. From now on, all three, made with different grape varieties, will be designated as Cavas de Guarda Superior Paraje Calificado (Superior Qualified Vineyard Cava). This prestigious designation will be described on the bottle itself, guaranteeing that the grapes come from a specific, identified vineyard, that the vines are over ten years old, that the harvest is done by hand, and that the minimum aging is thirty-six months, among other parameters. In the Cava DO, only fifteen sparkling wines can be sold on the market with this classification, and the novelty is that, in addition to the three Sumarroca bottles, two bottles from two different wineries have also been added: La Era del Celdoni from Carlos Andreu de Pira (Conca de Barberà). and the Blanco de Negros de Vinos El CepIt so happens that the fifteen prestigious cavas come from Catalan wineries, and therefore there are none that are made in the other cava-producing areas, such as Requena, La Rioja and Extremadura.

Marta Casas (Vilanova i la Geltrú, 1976) is the winemaker at the Parés Baltà winery, which produces cava and wines. In 2003, she, along with her sister-in-law, Maria Elena Jiménez, and their partners, revolutionized the winery, which, she recalls, was producing "a basic cava." A true wine and sparkling wine lover, Marta entered the Blind Tasting competition, organized by Vila Viniteca, to blindly identify fourteen wines and sparkling wines. She says her fingers were trembling when she entered the tasting room. on the distributor's website to get one of the one hundred and thirty-five registrationswhich were finished in two minutes and fifty-four seconds.

While the Penedès is still waking up from the beer toast at the TV3 New Year's Eve chimesSparkling wine producers are making more moves, demonstrating that we are living in a time of effervescent change. Two new wineries have just announced today that they are joining the Corpinnat brand, one of which previously belonged to the Cava DO. These are Torné & Bel, located in Espiells, and Mir, in Sant Sadurní. Torné & Bel has already submitted its resignation documentation to the Cava Regulatory Board. With these two additions, the Corpinnat sparkling brand, created in 2018It now has 21 wineries and grows by 75,000 more bottles.

TV3's New Year's Eve broadcast from Maria Cristina Avenue in Barcelona made history. First, because it broke audience records in Catalonia, reaching a 40.5% share. shareThis means that over a million people were watching the Catalan public broadcaster to celebrate the New Year. Secondly, because presenters Miki Núñez and Laura Escanes toasted with a 33cl bottle of Estrella Damm and then raised it to drink it. This act broke with a long-standing tradition at the Catalan public broadcaster, which had traditionally toasted with sparkling wine and used crystal glasses. The sparkling wine industry has protested vehemently, sending letters of complaint to the Catalan Media Corporation, the Catalan Wine Institute, and the Catalan Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Food. For their part, the Catalan company Estrella Damm and the management of TV3 explain that the choice of beer was due to the brewery's 150th anniversary celebration. "Next year, there will be sparkling wine again; they will toast with bubbles as always," stated TV3's director, Sigfrid Gras.

Cava producer Pere Ventura, a member of the Cava Regulatory Board and the Cava Institute, argues that "Corpinnat should be included in the Cava Designation of Origin within the premium sparkling wine category," which would also include other producers who share the same philosophy: long-aged grapes, aged for a minimum of eighteen months. "I'm aware that the Cava DO stems from an initial mistake, which was absorbing territories that weren't part of the Penedès region, but since we can't go back now, we can categorize the brand," says Ventura at his winery in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, which he built in 1991 with his wife, Mireia Juvé. "I support the Cava DO; I want to give it value," Ventura points out, adding that consumers would also find it easier if they could read on the labels that the cava they buy was made in the Penedès region, or in Requena (Valencian Community), or Almendralejo (Extremadura). And apart from knowing where that cava was made, I would have more information; I would know if I'm buying a premium category or a basic one.

The road leading to Vins El Cep is winding, dirt, and surrounded by vineyards. Early in the morning, you can see the sun rise beyond the vineyards. It's a picture-perfect landscape, which is probably why it has one of the town's signposted viewpoints, called Miranda de Espiell. At the end of the road is the winery, which has a manor house as a wine tourism center (tastings and meals are offered). A few meters further on, the offices in one room, and the vats where the wines and cavas are made in another.

The Raventós Codorníu wine group closed the 2024-2025 financial year (from July 1 of last year to June 30 of this year) with a new record in sales and profits, pending the outcome in the coming months of the sale of shares by the American private equity fund Carl six years ago. It closed the financial year with revenues of 238 million euros, 3% more than the previous fiscal year (These figures are at constant exchange rates), which represents a record high in the company's history. Likewise, earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) also reached a historic high, with an annual increase of 13% to €44 million.

The Kripta winery, owned by the Torelló Sibill family of San Sadurní de Anoia, has just announced that it is leaving the Cava DO to join the Corpinnat brand, adding its sixteenth producer to its ranks. "We were deeply rooted in Cava from the beginning, but in recent years the designation of origin has been drifting in a way that no longer identifies us, and Corpinnat is the natural path we want to follow," explained siblings Gemma and Àlex Torelló Sibill on the same morning they notified the Cava Regulatory Council of their departure. "We've timed it to coincide with the end of the quarter, when we've already filed our quarterly declarations, so we'll do this upcoming harvest as Corpinnat," they say.

If water is the drink that quenches thirst, and science says so, sparkling wine makers add that bubbles also help with that. Milestones for sparkling wines.

The words of the founder of the Peñín Guide of wines, José Peñín, recently expressed in a interview with the newspaper ARA have not been liked in the Cava Designation of Origin (DO). Peñín and talk about the crisis of that sparkling wine.

"The last 50 years have been the most important period in the millennial history of wine," says the founder of the Peñín Guide of wines, José Peñín (Santa Colomba de la Vega, León, 1943), because "there have never been so many changes" as in recent decades. With the aim of giving back to wine everything it has provided him and nourishing new generations with his experience, the veteran wine writer has just published the book My memories of wine (Planeta Gastro): In 700 pages, he recounts 50 years of experiences in the wine-producing regions of Spain and other countries, as well as with some of the most prominent wine personalities.