PENEDÈS, SPAIN — After attending my first Barcelona Wine Week (BWW), I was extremely grateful to be invited to stay longer for a thorough Cava re-education program, courtesy of ICEX (Instituto Español de Comercio Exterior), or the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade.
ICEX is the agency under the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism, and Trade, that works worldwide with the objective of promoting Spanish companies and products. In this case, this was a program specifically meant to promote Spanish Cava.
The Cava DO office is in Vilafranca del Penedès, just an hour drive from Sants-Montjuïc, Barcelona where BWW was held.
Cava DO is already Spain’s largest wine region export, yet there is a widespread belief that volume, especially for export, can still do better. At present, around 64% of Cava production goes to exports, compared to Italy’s Prosecco of which over 80% of its huge production is exported.
CAVA DO ON THE GLOBAL STAGEWhen it comes to sparkling wines, three regional names dominate the global stage: Champagne, Prosecco, and Cava. They are the largest sparkling wine regions in the world, each with its own identity and tradition.
Italy’s Prosecco, from the two neighboring regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, leads in sheer volume, producing an astonishing 667 million bottles in 2025, while France’s Champagne followed with 266 million bottles, and Cava with 218 million bottles despite recent drought challenges. Yet size alone does not tell the full story. Champagne, with its historic legacy, will be expanding soon after adding 40 villages to its appellation as approved in 2008, while Cava has turned a new leaf with stricter classifications to reinforce quality and trust. In this dynamic landscape, the competition is not just about numbers, but about how each region defines excellence in sparkling wine. And the Cava DO is extremely aware of this.
Few wines embody Spain’s celebratory spirit as vividly as Cava. Crafted with the traditional method invented in Champagne, Cava is enjoyed globally — it is Spain’s number one wine export, much bigger than the products of the equally popular Rioja wine region. But in recent years, Cava DO has faced challenges to its reputation. In 2017-2018, nine prestigious bodegas broke away to form Corpinnat (it got its EU recognition in 2019), a new collective group emphasizing terroir-driven sparkling wines from Penedès, citing concerns that Cava’s standards were too broad and diluted.
The formation of Corpinnat reminds me of Germany’s VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter), an association of wineries that has their own classifications different from the official German Wine Institute classification, though the VDP in Germany is not competing against non-VDP members.
This Corpinnat departure sparked questions: could Cava DO maintain its prestige and consumer trust?
The answer, now that we are in 2026, is a resounding yes. With the full implementation of the new Cava classification system introduced in 2022 (though it had been widely discussed in the Cava DO Regulatory Council several years earlier), the denomination has redefined itself with stricter, transparent, and quality-focused standards.
SHERWIN A. LAO is the first Filipino wine writer member of both the Bordeaux-based Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux (FIJEV) and the UK-based Circle of Wine Writers (CWW). For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, wine consultancy and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at wineprotege@gmail.com, or check his wine training website https://thewinetrainingcamp.wordpress.com/services/. Also check out his YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/@winecrazy.
‘PREMIUMIZED’ CLASSIFICATIONThe classification defined a clear two-tier quality structure: Cava de Guarda and Cava de Guarda Superior. The Guarda is the non-vintage version with minimum bottle aging of nine months, while the Guarda Superior is the premium version, is vintage-specific and has stricter guidelines that include wines having to be 100% organic, coming from vineyards that are 10 years or older, and a maximum yield per hectare of 10,000 kg.
There are three more quality tiers under Cava de Guarda Superior, depending on their bottle aging, like the ones in other Spanish wine regions.
So, the Cava classifications (and their descriptions) are:
Cava de Guarda (nine months aging) – Fresh, youthful, and fruit-driven
Cava de Guarda Superior – No Crianza level
•Reserva (aged 18 months) – Greater depth and aromatic complexity
•Gran Reserva (aged 30 months) – Intense personality, layered aromas
•Paraje Calificado (aged 36 months) – roughly translated as “qualified estate or place,” so exceptional wines from single, distinguished terroirs, with strict yield limits and manual harvests
This two-tier quality structure was designed to “premiumize” Cava, moving away from a focus on high volume to longer aging and higher quality. This hierarchy is not just aesthetics, it guarantees provenance, aging, and production integrity, reinforced by individual quality stamps at each level, and traceability from vineyard to market. By codifying these standards, Cava DO now offer clarity and assurance to consumers all around the world.
INDIGENOUS VARIETALSWhile the Cava DO has allowed more varietals to be made into Cava over the years, including Champagne staples chardonnay and pinot noir, I am glad that the original Cava trio of macabeu (spelled with u not o in this region), xarello, and parellada still constitute 82% of all Cava blends. This to me is the differentiation between Cava and Champagne or other sparkling wines.
During our visit to eight amazing Cava DO houses, the consensus was that the most beloved varietal has always been xarello, and in no coincidence that xarello is also the varietal with the oldest vineyards in the Penedès region. This varietal is commended for creating wines with a good acid backbone, excellent aromatics that include green apple, white flowers, almonds and ginger, and even a nice sherry-like complex nose when the Cava has aged longer in lees.
Some of the best Cavas I enjoyed in this trip were made mostly with xarello dominating the blend.
It was also on this trip that I found out that one of the best Cavas I had in the past, Kripta, with its unique amphora-shaped bottle, joined Corpinnat just last year, and that the winery, Agustí Torelló Mata, rebranded to Celler Kripta, and is no longer a Cava DO.
A SPARKLING FUTURE AHEADCava’s journey has not been without turbulence. The breakaway of Corpinnat highlighted the tension between quantity and quality, but it also pushed Cava DO to evolve and address certain concerns. Now, with its fully implemented classification system, Cava DO demonstrates that it is committed to excellence, authenticity, and consumer trust.
For wine lovers, this means that every bottle of Cava carries a promise: whether a young easy-drinking Guarda or a well-crafted Guarda Superior Paraje Calificado, it is a sparkling wine with integrity, tradition, and a renewed dedication to quality. In turning this new leaf, Cava reclaims its place not just as Spain’s most famous sparkler, but as one of the world’s most trustworthy and exciting sparkling wines.
This saying was thrown around a lot throughout Barcelona Wine Week, that “Spain produces the best quality for price ratio wines,” and this statement couldn’t have been truer in the case of Cava. Salud!
Sherwin A. Lao is the first Filipino wine writer member of both the Bordeaux-based Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux (FIJEV) and the UK-based Circle of Wine Writers (CWW). For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, wine consultancy and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at wineprotege@gmail.com, or check his wine training website https://thewinetrainingcamp.wordpress.com/services/. Also check out his YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/@winecrazy.