I certainly understood its place in the wine world: the long history, the meticulous production, the reverence. But every time I found myself at a party where a bottle was opened, I couldn’t understand why people were willing to shell out several hundred dollars for something that never quite lived up to the fuss. The bubbles were fine, the wine was pleasant, but it rarely left a mark.
What I didn’t realize then was that what I’d been drinking often wasn’t Champagne at all. More often than not, it was sparkling wine passed off in the same broad category—a prosecco here, a cava there—festive, fizzy, and fun, but not the same thing. I knew enough about wine to know Champagne had pedigree, but not enough to know I hadn’t really met the real deal yet.
The #WorldWineTravel group is continuing its virtual tour of Spain and this month features the region of Catalunya. As this region is home to our favourite sparkling wine after Champagne, our article provides some background on Cava. To read the other articles related to this month’s topic, please refer to the links at the end.
Cava is Spain’s answer to Champagne: a delicious sparkling wine made using the Méthode Champenoise, the traditional method used in Champagne to add the bubbles to the wine. There are definitely differences between the two wines, and similarities as well, but budget-friendly Cava is certainly a wine worth getting to know more about.
This year during the holiday season we think it is more important than ever to do some celebrating. The holidays are traditionally about celebrating. For 2020, most of us will not be able to celebrate with all the people we would like to celebrate with, due to the travel and gathering restrictions made necessary by the spread of COVID 19. The size of the celebration must be smaller, but it is still possible to celebrate. Just making it to the end of 2020 is a reason to celebrate!
AdVINEtures was recently invited to Australia to host a group of 22 Flight Centre Canada travel consultants and show them the best of the Yarra Valley in 24 hours. Any wine lover will tell you that 24 Hours isn’t nearly enough time to discover any wine region, let alone one we had never been to before! Add the fact that we had no prior knowledge of what wine experience or interests our large group had, and we were in for an interesting challenge. Challenge accepted.
Special thanks to Flight Centre Canada, Tourism Australia, Chateau Yering, Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, Coldstream Brewery & Yarra Valley Bike Hire for an excellent AdVINEture!
The best travel discoveries are often unplanned and it seems the same often holds true of wine experiences. We discovered Le Lude wine farm in Franschoek by sheer luck. We had an interview lined up with Tim Hoek of Haute Cabrière and after professing our love of sparkling wine, he insisted we make a stop at Le Lude before we left the region. A quick call to his winemaker friend Paul Gerber and we were about to discover a little piece of France right in South Africa.
Recent Comments