CAVA, the fizzy wine considered by many to be as Spanish as castanets, has lost its sparkle for many Spaniards.
Instead, in an act of treachery as bad as the British deserting beef for French foie gras, they are now quaffing French champagne.
Sales of cava in Spain fell last year by 6.6 per cent, while sales of the French bubbly stuff leapt by 36 per cent. It is thought to be the first time that champagne has achieved such popularity in a country where cava has customarily been the preferred apéritif or digestif. And this is despite the fact that champagne is more expensive.
The reason for the jump in sales is that cava is made almost exclusively in Catalonia, in northeast Spain. This rich region is embroiled in a political struggle for more autonomy from the national government in Madrid. Catalan politicians have asked for greater tax-raising powers, they want to pay less towards poorer regions of Spain and they want Catalonia to be known as a “nation”, rather than a region.
The issue has split Spain, with many Spaniards fearing that the Catalan bid for greater autonomy will divide the country and lead to similar attempts by other regions to break away from Madrid.
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As a protest against the Catalan autonomy bid, opponents started to boycott Catalan goods and firms. The effect on sales of cava — whose leading brands are Freixenet and Codorníu — has been severe, according to figures from the Cava Regulation Council.
“The boycott has seriously distorted the national market,” Gustavo García Guillamet, the council president, said. “Globally cava has overcome the boycott, though the domestic market has been seriously distorted in this last year.”
Yet if you are a Spanish cava producer, there has been something to raise a glass to. Exports of cava rose by 6.3 per cent last year and of all the cava produced last year, 58 per cent went to markets outside Spain — principally Britain, Germany and the United States.
Exports also rose to Japan, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands compared with the previous year. Of the 222.4 million bottles of cava sold last year, 93.5 million (42per cent) were sold in Spain.
In the past ten years sales of the sparkling wine have climbed 55 per cent from 143 million bottles, mostly because of European exports. Internationally, 76 per cent of cava exports went to Europe, and 12 million bottles were sold in America.
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Señor García is hopeful that local cava sales will recover: “We trust that the current situation will be normalised and we will recover our domestic market,” he said.
TENSIONS BUBBLING OVER