Like Cava? Then try Spain’s bubbly new breed of sparkling wines

Traditional-method Clàssic Penedès and Corpinnat offer creamy, nutty, toasty complexities

Spanish sparklers to try this weekend

Aoife Carrigy

In last week’s spotlight on the improved value in Cava wines, I mentioned the positive influence of two new Spanish sparkling wine classifications: Clàssic Penedès, a sub-appellation of DO Penedès, and Corpinnat, a collective of 11 premium-focused producers working in the ‘heart of Penedès’. These broke away in 2013 and 2017 respectively from the Cava Denomination of Origin. In pursuing more stringent, quality-focused regulations, these new collectives since spurred Cava producers to tighten up their own rules.

Like Cava, these sparklers are bottle fermented in the traditional method developed in Champagne. Yeast and sugar are added to a base wine, which is sealed in the bottle to capture C02 bubbles from the second fermentation, and aged on the lees (dead yeast) before disgorgement.