How did Cava get so small?

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"la DO Cava es mucho más que Corpinnat"

“DO Cava is much more than Corpinnat”

This was part of a declaration made by DO Cava president Javier Pagés at the beginning of February, 2019 when news broke that nine of DO Cava’s highest-quality producers were completely leaving the DO to work under the new auspices of their Corpinnat association.

Most in wine media defined this break of Corpinnat to be akin to the Catholic church’s Great Schism but in the land of sparkling wine. It was nothing so grandiose however and simply one symptom of much larger problems that had been steeping for years.

Recall that Raventós i Blanc left in 2012 and was followed shortly after by the creation of a competing sparkling sub-classification in 2013 called, “Clàssic Penedès”. While earlier symptoms, they attested to the same malady.