The Cellar: Cooling Off With Sparkling Wines
Friday, June 28, 2013
NV German Gilabert Cava Brut Nature, Penedez, Spain
This first sparkling wine is a Cava from the northeast Spanish region of Penedez. Cavas are made a way that resembles the ‘Traditional Method’ (the way Champagnes are made) but with very different grape varieties. The base wine that ends up becoming a Cava is a blend made up of three indigenous grape varieties; (50%) Macabeo, (30%) Xarello and (20%) Parellada. At German Gilabert they farm their vineyards organically and like to keep things as natural as possible. Among the interesting wines they make is this delicious Cava. Notice the ‘Brut Nature’ on the label? Wonder what that means? Well, get your nerd on because I’m about to tell you:
After having converted all the sugars in the grape juice into alcohol (fermentation) the wine will be bone dry. After the sediment has been removed the winemaker has to decide how dry he wants the finished sparkling wine to be. It is at this stage he will top his wine off with a little sugary base wine (called ‘liquor d’expedition’). This raises the sweetness level of the wine. Sparkling wines labeled ‘Brut’ have between 6-15 grams of added sugar per liter. While many of these wines may come across as completely dry, technically they aren’t. If you want to try the ‘real dry deal’ look for wines labeled ‘Brut Nature’, ‘Extra Brut’ (not to be confused with ‘Extra-Dry’ which is actually quite sweet) or ‘Brut Natural’. These wines have 0-5 grams of sugar in them and can be quite the mouth puckering experience. And this brings us back to the German Gilabert. This is tart and delicious–obviously super-duper dry wine–with fine bubbles and flavors of sour apple and hints of honey. If you’ve never had a Brut Nature wine today is the day!
2011 Mauzac Nature, Domaine Plageoles, Gaillac, France
Cheers!
Steffen Rasch is a Certified Sommelier and Specialist of Wine. Feel free to email him at [email protected] with any wine-related question or sign up for one of his tastings through the Providence Wine Academy.
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