CURRENTLY SERVING:

Cristalino Cava Brut NV

Springtime jumpstarts visions of roof deck sunshine, outdoor dining, and Jersey shore trips. Springtime says it’s time for the robust winter reds to be locked up in your cellar, and the refreshing seasonal wines to see the light of day. There’s nothing better to nurse your hangover than Sunday brunch. Springtime loves brunch. Brunch loves Champagne. But who has the wallet for that right around tax time? How about a $9 bottle of sparkling wine?

Cava is sparkling wine from Spain. Usually a white blend of large amounts of the Macabeo grape (grown near Barcelona), it has all of the requisite characteristics of a quality Champagne, but at a fraction of the price. Surprisingly, Champagne is not a great grape growing region. They only get a few good vintages per decade, but they invented the Champagne method of making sparkling wine, which is why Champagne is so pricey. The denotation of ‘NV’ in Champagnes and sparklers is ‘Non-Vintage’. Because there are so few good vintages of grapes in Champagne, they usually mix multiple still wines from good years with the current harvest. The years you do get a vintage Champagne (i.e. Krug 1996), expect to pay more. “Brut” also indicates a dry sparkler.

The term “Cava” comes from the Latin word for cave because caves were (and still are) used for cellaring expensive wine. The price here should be no indication of the quality in this bottle. This is an
amazing value. Usually priced at no more than $12, right now Cristalino is $8.99 in the PLCB.

In another column I will go into detail about the Méthode Champenoise, but right now I will just say that this process creates the textbook toasty pie crust smell that sparklers should have. It also has very fine bubbles, which indicates a high quality wine. In your cheaper bubbly, the bubbles will be larger and more like carbonated soda. This is because they actually carbonate the wine like soda in those cases. These tiny bubbles result from in-bottle fermentation, no infused CO2.

The nose is very bright and lightly French-baguette-y, with some pear and nuttiness after a few minutes sitting in the glass. Those aromas do not signify anything you will taste in the glass. A very relaxed,
yet dry orange peel and lemon zest flavoring is the result on the attack, which gets stopped dead cold by the dry finish. Not bone dry, but definitely done in the classic style. If you are looking for New World flavors, keep on going to a different bottle. But if you are looking for a nice, high quality classic Champagne-style white, this can’t be beat for the price. While better Champagnes (Heidseick, Perrier Jouet, Roederer, and the Krug) will most definitely be better, they also don’t cost $9.

If you’re doing brunch and don’t wanna burn off a good bubbly, use this for your mimosa’s. While Cava works really well with whitefish salads, lox, and crème fraiche-based sauces at brunch, it might get
pushed around by your French Toast and Eggs Benedict. If you’re having fruit-based brunch with starches, and salads, this is your bottle.

I have seen this listed as ‘Regular’ in the PLCB. What that means is that it will be around. Might not be a lot of it in each store, but it’s all over. It won’t only be in the Collection Store, it is distributed to all LCB stores. If you cannot find Cristalino, any Cava will do the same trick, but right now Cristalino is $9 and why I chose it. I do not recommend Freixenet, though. Just not my cup of tea and a little pricier than it should be. Don’t pay more than $12 for your Cava. It will be in the Sparkling section, not Spanish. The PLCB code for Cristalino is 006501.

Collin Flatt is a former Beer Pong champ turned oenophile. Collin Flatt spends his tax refunds on wine. Collin Flatt has his Bachelor’s Degree in drinking and is getting his Master’s Degree in winemaking. Collin Flatt is working on an Arctice Splash Cuvee. Collin Flatt writes about wine for Phoodie.info.

Read more of It’s Vintastic! here.