Almost a year ago, on July 16, 2020, the Plenary Session of the Cava Regulatory Council unanimously approved a historic modification of its regulations consisting of creating a new zoning system that will allow identifying the origin of the cava on the bottles. This regulation, however, was pending validation by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which finally signed a favorable resolution to the modification of the DO's specifications on June 10, and which was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on June 15.
This procedure formalizes the new regulations and puts an end to a long process of dialogue and search for maximum consensus led by the president of the DO Cava, Javier Pagés, who considers this achievement "historic", in the sense that it represents "a new beginning in the history of cava".
The great novelty is that from January 1, 2022, cava produced in Catalonia can be identified on bottle labels as cava from the Comtats de Barcelona. Reaching a consensus to choose this brand to identify the main producing area was not easy. After many months of discussions, the cavistas validated this denomination to take advantage of the great international notoriety of the Barcelona brand and avoid using the Catalonia brand, with many more political connotations. The producers also considered that in a global market it is much easier to identify Barcelona on the map than Catalonia.
The incorporation of the Comtats de Barcelona brand on the labels will be completely voluntary and puts an end to a historical anomaly: the difficulty until now in identifying cava with a specific territory, since the regulations allow cava to be produced not only in the Penedès area ---where production is concentrated--- and in the rest of Catalonia, but also in other autonomous communities such as Extremadura, Aragon or the Valencian Community. "International oenologists and sommeliers found it difficult to understand that a cava produced in Extremadura or in the Penedès, with different climatic and orographic conditions, could be called the same," they explain in the sector.
For this reason, the new regulations now published in the BOE define four large cava producing areas. Cava produced in Catalonia can be labeled as Comtats de Barcelona; that from Extremadura will be called Viñedos de Almendralejo; and the Valle del Ebro (for Aragon and La Rioja) and Levante zones are also created, although the definitive nomenclature to identify Valencian cava has not yet been decided.
The new regulation also establishes a second level of zoning consisting of creating two sub-zones in Valle del Ebro (Alto Ebro and Valle del Cierzo) and five sub-zones in Catalonia to further identify the origin of the grape used to make that bottle of cava: Valls d'Anoia-Foix, Serra de Mar, Conca del Gaia, Serra de Prades and Pla de Ponent.
According to the DO Cava, each of these eleven zones and sub-zones has a "unique and justified identity" defined by specific climatic, orographic, historical, or human characteristics.
New segmentation: Guarda and Guarda Superior cavas arrive
Within the framework of its new strategic plan, the Cava Regulatory Council has also taken advantage of this regulatory reform to increase quality thresholds, strengthen traceability systems, and introduce a new segmentation that will highlight high-end products.
The minimum aging period required for all cavas has not been modified, as it remains nine months. A new name is given to this segment of young cavas, which can display the Cava de Guarda distinctive on the label. On the contrary, the requirement for making reserve cavas is increased. Previously, a reserve was one that had more than 15 months, and with the new regulation, the minimum aging must be 18 months. In parallel, gran reserva will have a minimum of 30 months. Finally, there are the new Cavas de Paraje Calificado ---the result of a previous legislative modification---, which must come from an exceptional geographical location and have a minimum aging of 36 months.
Reserve, gran reserve, and single-estate cavas can also be identified with the new Cava de Guarda Superior label, which will allow consumers to identify the highest-end products and distinguish them from a young cava. The goal of the DO Cava is that by 2025, 100% of Guarda Superior cavas will be organic. They cannot be produced with just any grape, as the Regulatory Council has created a new specific registry where vineyards suitable for producing these high-segment cavas must be registered. Specifically, they must be vineyards of at least ten years old, organic, and with yields below 10,000 kilos per hectare. In addition, Guarda Superior cavas must state the vintage on the label and be produced separately from the rest to guarantee traceability from the vineyard to the bottle.
Finally, the legislative modification introduces another distinction, also voluntary, that of elaborador integral (integral producer), to identify wineries that control the entire value chain, meaning they press and vinify 100% of their cavas, in addition to aging and performing the double fermentation. It should be noted that it is very common in the world of cava to buy base wine and only carry out the final part of the process, that is, bottle aging.
"It is the most demanding regulation in the world among quality sparkling wines with DO produced under the strict traditional method; we have opted for maximum traceability and quality," explains Pagés. Despite having been able to approve this historic reform, the cava leader has not managed to get the wineries that left the DO Cava to create the collective brand Corpinnat to return, as zoning and the increase in quality requirements were the main demands that made them abandon cava.
Currently, the DO Cava encompasses 370 wineries and a vineyard area of 38,000 hectares cultivated by 6,800 winegrowers. This designation of origin is the largest exporter in Spain, and 71% of its sales are made in the foreign market. In 2020, they sold 215.5 million bottles, a 13.62% decrease compared to the 249.5 million bottles sold in 2019, a record year in terms of volume, as it was the second best in cava's history, after 2017, with a record 252.5 million.