How Cava is becoming more resilient

After two climate alerts in previous years, the 2023 harvest put a true damper on the industry’s enthusiasm as drought swept across the region and led volumes to plummet in some cases, potentially stifling growth in the future.

This is a real issue for Cava because unlike Champagne, for example, it cannot use reserve wines from previous years to make up for the shortfall. Fortunately, not all vineyard sites were affected equally and some managed to avoid the downturn. Nevertheless, this mini crisis will have repercussions, including for prices which are likely to increase. It will probably also end sales promotions in a bid to recoup some of the volume losses by improving value gains.

We travelled to a number of Cava producing regions – not just Catalonia but also Extremadura and Aragon – to sound out industry sentiment after this unprecedented, seismic event (see page 102). Producers are actually fairly confident and are focusing on their ability to innovate to overcome this setback. They are taking practical, common sense measures like implementing vineyard management techniques that promote water retention for instance – deep tillage and winter ground cover – in order to curb the worst effects of drought. Common sense and forward planning have, after all, always made good bedfellows.

By Isabelle Escande photographs - Courtesy of the estates