Cava from Montau de Sadurni

Slowly, the internet presence of wineproducers is growing. They not only have digital contact information on a static homepage, but are also present with blogs, on Twitter and Hyves or with profiles on LinkedIn. A lot of opportunities to meet them, then! So when I came across Barbara Siemianiuk on Twitter a couple of months ago, I was very happy. Barbara is the export manager for cava producer Montau de Sadurni, and contact with a producer was what was still missing in my cava series.
I read a few very interesting pieces on Barbara’s blog, and we started to make contact through Twitter. For the moment, it has resulted in my tasting of two Montau de Sadurni cava’s, Arrels Brut Nature Reserva and Arrels Brut Nature Gran Reserva. In the last couple of weeks, Barbara also send me some firsthand information on the harvest, which you can find here.

But now, let me introduce Montau de Sadurni a little bit more (as I have learned from their internet presence: website, blog and twitter). The Sadurni family has a long tradition in grapes. For over five centuries they have inhabited Can Sadurni in the village of Begues, in the hills at an altitude of 400 metres. Begues is situated 15 kilometer from Barcelona, near the sea and in the Garraf, where the mediterranean breeze creates a suitable climat for wine growing. Apart from a wine producing company, the family also owns a family restaurant, Celler d’en Sadurni. The restaurant serves typical Catalan dishes from Friday to Sunday.

For the wine making, the company controls every part of the proces. They source the grapes from their own vineyards, have wine making facilities, a cellar and a bottle line, for example. They work with respect for their surroundings, and pay a lot of attention to their wines. Next to cava’s, also still wines are made, from more international grapes. I tasted a very smooth and silky merlot, with a lot of power. This Arrels Montau de Sadurni Merlot Reserva 2001 combined good with our meal of homemade bread, cheese, dry sausage and a tomato/cucumber/olive salad!

But now to the cava’s: Brut Nature Reserva and Brut Nature Gran Reserva. Both are made of 40% xarel.lo, 30% macabeu and 30% parellada, both have 11.5% alcohol. Perfect wines then for an impromptu cava tasting on Thursday evening, waiting for every family member to come home to dinner.

The big difference between a Reserva and a Gran Reserva is the time of bottle ageing in the cellar. At Montau de Sadurni, the Gran Reserva has aged for a minimum of three years, the Reserva approximately two years. This is far longer than the legally required ageing periods of 30 and 15 months respectively.

And you can taste that difference in ageing very well: the Gran Reserva is darker in colour, smells more of yeasts and nuts and tastes more solemn, with a hint of almonds. The Gran Reserva needs some time in the glass to open up, whereas the Reserva from the first sip is a fruity and joyfull wine, perfect for every day drinking. The Gran Reserva however, I would open to celebrate the signing of a contract, when you just bought a new house.

We were very pleased with these two bottles of cava, and hope they will find an importer in the Netherlands soon. They deserve it!