What is Cava?

March 16, 2013-

Happy Saint Patrick's Day weekend!!

All of my friends went to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend to celebrate the festivities, however, since I have already been to Ireland I decided to have a weekend to myself.

Today was our last excursion presented by ISA. A cava tour?! I HAD to go!

But what is this "Cava" you talk about? 

Well, cava is the Spanish word for champagne. The Spanish don't need a special occasion to break out the cava, apparently it is common in Spain to have a bottle of cava in the refrigerator and break it open anytime someone comes over: Morning, evening, night, anytime!
Meeting time was 9 a.m.

First, we took the bus about 45 minutes to the beautiful vineyard of Codorniu. After taking massive amounts of pictures of the vineyards and the grounds around, we finally headed through the golden gates of Codorniu and on to our tour.

We watched a 20 minute movie about it being a family run business and how wine and cava is made and then they took us outside and in to the factory. The factory was located on the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the mountains and towns surrounding it. Inside the factory, we learned how wine and cava is made and the lengthy process it takes.  Then we went down to the fourth floor underground and walked around all the stored bottles that would be filled with the wine or cava. The ground to the ceiling was covered in bottles that were waiting to be filled. Then, down another floor, we took a little train ride around the many bottles, it was like a maze in there, I don't know how the driver knew where she was going! The "streets" had little signs that had a city name and then Cava after it. For example, on "street" was "Cava Barcelona Codorniu" or "Cava Valencia Codorniu." Maybe that's how she navigated through there! 


After our short train ride we headed back up to the main level and got to taste two kinds of cava made from the factory itself: semi seco rose and brute. Both of them had two very different tastes, but my favorite was the brute. 

By the time we were done with our cava tour it was time to continue on our journey to the beautiful town of Sitges. Ahh yes, back to the town where Carneval was.

Except, Carneval was over, so now it was an opportunity for me to see the town without the huge crazy party and really experience what Sitges is. When we arrived to Sitges we had free time until 5:30 (about 5 hours) where we could do whatever we wanted. My friend and I decided to sit inside a cafe for a few hours and talk and then wander around the city and eventually end up at the beach. It was overcast, but the beach was absolutely beautiful. Along the beach was a quilt festival in tents so we wandered inside only to see a bunch of little old short Spanish women wandering around buying things like crazy.

After wandering around the city, in and out of streets, a few times, it was time to head back to the bus and go back to Barcelona. 

I couldn't help but think: Perhaps becoming a wine/cava connoisseur would be the next thing on my list of things to accomplish, after learning Italian and French, of course.