Different bubblies
What cava can teach us.
No doubt the glorious rise of local, bottle-fermented sparkling wine – instigated by the great Frans Malan at Simonsig all those decades ago – has, from the start, mimicked as best it could, what it considered the real McCoy: champagne. And there is no doubt that, even when we say MCC isn’t ‘champagne’, the combination of pinot noir, chardonnay and now, increasingly, pinot meunier is what we consider the best basis for fine bubbly.
Experiments in the great method of getting the second fermentation in the bottle right – not to mention the run-away commercial success of sparkling wine – have delivered the odd ‘other’ grape bottlings: shiraz (a la Aussie), pinotage (GB ace PF’s efforts, now abandoned) and, with some success, chenin blanc (which was also Frans Malan’s first base wine).
Yet, Cape winemakers, progressively more expert in the fine-tuning of the bottled magic, have not extended the field of grape varietals much when it comes to MCC.
This thought came to mind with the pleasant surprise of a contemporary cava opened the other night.
Spain’s indigenous sparkling wine ‘cava’ (from the Catalan ‘cave/cellar’) has a long history dating back to the 1850s when the colourful Josep Raventós of the Codorníu winery visited Champagne.
But until fairly recently, cava - made from the local grapes with delightful names macabeu, parellada and xarel·lo - was not considered top-notch stuff. Among the many wine drinkers who weren’t into the high prices of champagne, cava has been the stand-by bubbly – and it’s been a UK supermark seller for yonks.
Yet, there is nothing like a challenge to thrill a younger generation of winemakers, and today the Spanish are making delicious cavas. No mistake, they do not taste like champagne, but some wines are outstanding, original and full of personality. The best are now finding great favour, also for being ‘different’.
My surprise was a Jaume Serra Brut that I picked up at Ultra (they import it) for a cent less than R50. And it was a wow, even though the bubbles were not champagne tiny. The parellada in the blend, especially, gives the wine a lip-smacking fruitiness, tinged with spice. (Come to think about it, why are those varieties not on our vineyard radar screen?)
- Melvyn Minnaar's blog
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Re: Different bubblies
It seems to me that what the Cape winemakers are trying to do with MCC is duplicate Champagne and that is the *sole* reason for their focus on the varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier. Of course, to be authentic they need an awful lot more of the latter.
But however much they try their product will never be and can never be Champagne with all the cachet that name has. No matter how good, it will be a ‘me-too’ wine.
In my opinion there’s nothing particularly special about Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier that make them the arbiter of what a good sparkling wine should be,. It was just an accident that it was difficult to make good still wine from Burgundian grapes that far north in Champagne, but good fizz can be made from unripe grapes and the easily mined chalk underneath provided cool cellars for making and aging. The proximity of Paris offered a market and publicity there and beyond.
Dom Perignon who is incorrectly credited with inventing sparkling wine had previously visited the Loire where they make excellent sparkling wine by the ‘champagne’ method from Chenin Blanc.
Chenin fizz has a lot going for it. The Loire sparklers have an extra body and fragrance which many drinkers find more appealing than the sharp acidity of many Brut Champagnes.
It seems to me that if South Africa wants a good sparkling wine that doesn’t use the same varieties as Champagne then it doesn’t need to import new Spanish ones. Luckily South Africa has plenty of Chenin.
Perhaps Vouvray on the Loire should be on the itinerary of the next South African winemaker’ tour.
The new fashionable fizz in the UK is Prosecco, a Charmat method fizz from grapes of the same name made in Italy. Sales in the UK have soared, ‘at Tesco are up 50% year-on-year, with the Italian sparkling wine outperforming both Champagne and Cava.’*
Unfortunately the clever Italians recently grabbed EU protection for the name Prosecco and changed the name of the grape to Glera to prevent others marketing Prosecco.
Could South Africa enter that market with an inexpensive Charmat method fizz made from Chenin? Needs a good name — Chensecco?
Cheers
*http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2013/01/prosecco-outperforming-champagne-in-uk