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Viva Espanola, Viva Spanish wine
Familiar with the Mask of Zorro as I am, I expected to see a warm complexioned, robust Spaniard when I walked into the Spanish Wine Launch at the Hilton recently. Surprisingly when my host, Prakash Mirchandani, Managing Director of Favourite International Exports Ltd., agents for Codorniu wines, introduced me to a gentleman clad in business suit, he looked more like a Wall Street investment banker.

Victor Quinson, Director, Asia Pacific of Codorniu, Spain was in Sri Lanka for the official launch of their world famous 'Cava', an off-dry champagne which was crisp and delicious. "You are not drinking Dom Perignon but our own Cava 'Brut' from Spain," Mr. Quinson commented.

I was to learn the next day that although Dom Perignon was responsible for much of the early development of the process which is called the 'method champenoise', it is essentially a 200-year accumulation of practices; the most important being the wine's secondary fermentation in the bottle in which it is sold. Many other sparkling wines are made by the 'method champenoise', but the EC is proposing a ban on the use of this term for all white wines other than champagne (whose producers never use it anyway), thus losing the information required to separate good sparkling wine made outside Champagne from inferior wines made by other methods.

Mr. Quinson began the evening with a powerpoint presentation, starting off with the impressive Codorniu Winery (all glass, brickwork and arches) revealing the splendour of its Catalonian architecture. King Juan Carlos I had it declared a National Monument in 1976. As impressive as the outside is what goes inside, because Codorniu cellars contain more than 30 km of galleries on five levels, making them the most extensive subterranean cellars in the world storing millions of bottles.

The story of Codorniu is interwoven with both romance and success. It begins with founder Don Jaume Codorniu in 1551 and continued with heiress Dona Maria Anna Codorniu marrying Don Miquel Raventos in 1659. The Codorniu group has earned its place in history as the founder of the Spanish sparkling wine industry. About 125 years ago, a direct descendant of Anna Codorniu and Miguel Raventos, Don Jose Raventos revolutionized the world of wine with the Art of Cava.

This Cava was given the name of Codorniu in honour of his ancestors. In 1885 Codorniu Cavas began to win gold medals. In 1904 King Alfonso XIII visited the Codorniu cellars, initating a close relationship between the family-owned company and the Royal family of Spain. Codorniu cherishes its appointment as an "Official Purveyor to the Royal family".

About Codorniu Cava
Chardonnay, Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada are the grape varieties that are used to make the Cava. The 'method traditional' requires two fermentations. The first needs 12 days and takes place in stainless steel tanks with a controlled temperature. The second takes place in the bottle, the same bottle that will arrive in the hands of the consumer.

The second fermentation is the one that gives rise, through temperature and pressure, to the birth of the bubbles. Cava takes nine months to develop and the evolution is left to take place for two years.

Tasting Cava Sparkling white
A top quality Cava has an unmistakable toasty aroma, a firm mousse of small - to pin prick-size bubbles and a fresh, clean palate of distinctive fruit.
True Cavas are mostly dry, but can range from bone-dry to sweet, as follows:
* Extra Brut (very dry) Brut (dry to off-dry)
* Extra Seco (off-dry) Seco (medium dry)
* Semi-Seco (semi dry)
* Dulce (sweet to very sweet)

The reds from Rioja
The second half of the presentation showed us Spain and its wine growing regions. Spain is a hot, dry mountainous country with more land under wines than any other country in the world. It ranks third in the world in wine production, after Italy and France.
Spain's wine image has been one of inexpensive, unremarkable red wines. Its evolution in quality began in the late 1950s in Spain's most famous red wine region Rioja in north-central Spain.

The Rioja region has three districts, the cooler Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Alta and the warmer Rioja Baja. Most of the best Riojas are made from grapes in the two cooler districts, but some Riojas are blended from grapes of all three districts.

Spicy aromas
'Vina Pomal' Bodegas Bilbainas of Codorniu group is one such wine that comes from Rioja Alta. Made from 85% Tempranillo and 15% Graciano and Mazuelo, this ruby coloured wine has intense spicy aromas of tobacco, clove and red fruits and is smooth on the palate, round and full-bodied with a lingering pleasant finish.

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