Buying and enjoying Cava
Cava is a premium sparkling which comes from Spain. In this series we have discovered what Cava is, what grape varieties are used for making Cava, where Cava is produced, the different styles and how Cava producers are striving for sustainability. Of course, the remaining question is how can we buy and enjoy Cava? In this post we will consider that along with the best way to store and serve Cava to get the most out of it.
An availability problem
Despite the fact that Cava is a relatively well known sparkling wine, it does not enjoy the same popularity as Proscecco, not the same exclusivity as Champagne. This means that while it is often possible to source Cava, there is often not much choice in the types of Cava available to consumers outside of Spain. By comparison, Champagne is a luxury purchase and exports close to 300m bottles per year, compared with around 140 million bottles of Cava in 2024. In 2024, my home country, the UK imported around 22 million bottles of champagne, but just under 16 million bottles of Cava. Dwarfing both the UK imported around 140 million bottles of Prosecco.
Given that the adult population of the UK is around 40.5 million, that means that there is about half a bottle of Champagne per person imported to the UK per year, with around 3.5 bottles of Prosecco and about four tenths of a bottle of Cava. Given that the UK is the third largest export market for Cava, is is reasonable to assume the same issue is replicated in other territories. All this means that the first challenge in enjoying a bottle of Cava is getting hold of one. Or rather, the challenge is finding more than a handful of choices.
Having explored the various styles of cava available this limited choice means that finding a Cava in the superior category is often quite difficult. There are some good exporters which are worth look at, however. One option is Decantalo, which in the UK can be found at www.decantalo.co.uk. There are also occasionally superior category wines available at Majestic www.majestic.co.uk. Given that only 4,000 bottles of Paraje de Calificado are exported each year, if you get a bottle of that you are very lucky, but Decantalo do have one (May 2025).
Storage Cava
Like all wines, Cava requires careful storage to maintain its quality. There are some key considerations which need to be made when storing a bottle.
- The Temperature – Ideally Cava should be stored at a constant temperature of 14ºC to preserve it as long as possible. However, shortly before serving, it should be chilled to a lower temperature (see section below on serving temperatures).
- Humidity – Just as important as temperature is humidity which should ideally be at around 50%. Obviously not everyone has a wine cellar with 50% humidity, but potentially a cool and humid space in an outbuilding or a wine fridge may be as close as you can get.
- Position – General convention dictates that wines with a cork, should be stored horizontally in order that the wine remains in contact with the cork to keep it moist. If a cork dries out the seal can fail letting oxygen in and ruining the wine. However, there is strong debate around whether sparkling wines should follow this rule due to the pressure in the bottle which is thought to keep the humidity of the cork higher. That being said, storing the bottle horizontally won’t do any harm, so my recommendation is to do so.
- Light – Light is not a friend to wine, that is why most bottles are not made of clear glass. Light taint is actually a much more common fault in wine than cork taint, as most wines are stored on shelves for display purposes. However, when storing a bottle of Cava it should be kept in a dark or very dimly lit place.
- Noise and vibration – In the same way that light is not good for wine, neither is vibration and noise. Therefore, Cava should be stored in a place away from noise and vibration in order to avoid agitating the wine.
- Odours and smells – Storing Cava away from odours and smells will also help prevent contamination.
The worst place to store wine is in the kitchen. Thinking about the list above, light levels are likely to be variable, there will be odours, vibration and noise, as well as big variations in temperature and humidity from cooking. If you wine is in the kitchen, hopefully its in the fridge chilling just prior to serving.
Service temperatures
As we have discovered, there are a number of different styles of Cava. Depending on the style, the service temperature will be slightly different. The table below is guide:
| Style | Serving Temperature |
| Cava de Guarda | 8ºC |
| Cava Reserva | 10ºC |
| Cava Gran Reserva | 10ºC |
| Cava Paraje de Calificado | 12ºC |
| Sweet Cava | 6ºC |
Serving your Cava at the right temperature, will help to bring out the flavour compounds correctly. In order to get your bottle to the right temperature you have a few options.
Chilling it in the fridge
One option is to chill the bottle in the fridge just prior to serving it. Please note the emphasis here is on the fridge not the freezer. Placing the wine in a freezer is generally not a good idea as it can chill it too quickly causing shock to the wine. If the wine is chilled overnight (and there is nothing wrong with this, or chilling for several days) then its likely at around 4/5ºC, and may just need a short period of time at room temperature to come up to the right temperature for serving.
Using an ice bucket
Another option for both chilling and keeping the bottle chilled is using an ice bucket. To properly an ice bucket, the volume of water to ice should be around 50/50. Too much ice and there is minimal contact with the bottle so it will take longer to chill. If you want to chill the wine a little quicker, you can substitute water with soda water as it will help to cool the wine a little quicker. You can also add salt. Another technique is to gently stir the ice with the wine bottle, this helps to accelerate the process of convection. However, be careful with the last technique as agitating the bubbles could increase the pressure in the bottle.
Safely opening the bottle
As mentioned, sparkling wines have significant pressure in the bottle and on occasion can be dangerous to open. Aparently more people are killed by flying sparkling wine corks (24 per year) than from poisonous spider bites or shark attack! If not opened correctly a cork under pressure can cause eye injuries and even blindness. Corks can leave a bottle at an astonishing 55mph!
So you know, how to avoid this the steps are as follows:
- Remove the foil
- Loosen the wire cage (fun fact: it should take exactly 6 half turns to loosen the cage)
- Put your thumb on top of the cork and keep it there for the remainder of the process
- Tilt the bottle to between 30 and 45 degrees, pointed away from you and anyone else
- Grip the cork with one hand and the base of the bottle with the other hand
- Turn the bottle and not the cork
- Maintain pressure on the cork resisting the pressure for it to fly out, slowly easing it out of the bottle
- The gas pressure should be released with a quiet ‘phut’, rather than an explosion or free flying cork.
While it might look great fun shaking the bottle and letting the Cava squirt all over the place like in the Grand Prix, its just really wasting good wine.
What to drink your Cava in
There is a lot of debate in the wine world about the virtue of different types of ‘champagne’ glass. Way back in the past, coupe glasses were used. These are shallow with a wide top. The down side of this is that the bubbles get to the top of the glass quickly and the Cava goes ‘flat’. At the opposite extreme is the flute. The flute is great for the bubbles because it is narrow and tall, taking the bubbles a long to reach the top. However, this narrow opening makes it more difficult to get the aromas of the wine. In an idea world then, the tulip glass strikes a balance between these two extremes. It is wider than the flute, but narrower than the coupe, and taller than the coupe, but more bulbous than the flute funnelling the aromas to the top of the glass.
To be perfectly honest, I get pretty irriated by people saying that the only way to drink sparkling wine is from a tulip. That might be broadly true for people who are professionally tasting (although most tasters will be using ISO style glasses anyway!), but most people aren’t looking to get the perfect balance between bubbles and aromas, they just want to enjoy the wine. And honestly, you can drink Cava from a white wine glass if you want. So, while a tulip glass may be ideal, if you want to drink your Cava from a coupe, flute, white wine glass, coffee mug, pint glass or anything else that’s fine with me. Personally, I find that they can lead to the bubbles escaping too quickly, just like a coupe, and I’d rather my sparkling wine was, well… sparkling! Just know that the ideal balance is a tulip.
Conclusion
So, as you can see, how you buy, store, cool and serve your Cava can all add to the drinking experience. Cava is truly an amazing wine which is genuinely undervalued by wine experts and consumers. The best wines are those in the superior category, so if you can find them, you’ll often find for a little bit more money, you make a signficant jump in quality. Your wallet will still thank you for choosing a Cava over a Champagne, even in the higher quality wines.
I hope this series has given you an insight into the world of Cava and encouraged you to try more of these beautiful wines. Of course if you want to taste them in Spain, you can visit many of the vineyards. You might want to consider this tour from Barcelona or this one at the Codorniu winery. And in the meantime, keep on exploring this beautiful planet we live on, one glass at a time.