NV Rondel Cava Brut

NV Rondel Cava Brut

Vintage: NV

Region: Spain (I think Catalonia) 

Winemakers: Rondel

Varietal: Cava Blend (Xarel-lo, Macabeo, Parellada)

Price: $8.99 at Total Wine

Expert Rating: 90

My Rating: 85

The Review: Golf is back next week, and that's a reason to celebrate! Even if you don't like golf, there's always a reason to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than by popping open some sparkling wine? As I discussed in the previous post, sparkling wine can be a little confusing, so if you haven't read that one I would probably recommend that you do. It might help frame this review a little better.

Cava, originally intended to be the Spanish answer to Champagne, has sort of settled into the role of being a lesser-known sparkling wine. Made in the traditional Champagne method but with different grape blends, it achieved a bit of a reputation of being "poor mans Champagne," even though it's totally different. And that's a shame because it's really unique and can be quite delicious (and is usually significantly cheaper than Champagne)!

You've probably seen today's wine at some point- its classic blue bottle and great price make it quite popular for parties. The Rondel Cava Brut (brut=dry=no residual sugar) is pretty solid overall. It presents an incredibly floral nose... it smelled kind of like perfume? It's almost so much that it masks the fruit notes, but some stone fruit still sneaks through.

On the taste, the stone fruit finally prevails and the wine shows notes of peach and apricot. It's got a pretty refreshing punch of acidity with some nice textured bubbles that make this wine fun and interesting to drink. On the finish, we finally get a little herb, nuttiness, and some of that floral fragrance from the nose that adds complexity and thus, adds some points back to the rating.

Overall, I personally felt that 90 points was a little generous, so I settled for a solid 85. Don't let that concern you though- for $9, this wine is really good. I'd suggest this with no hesitation to anyone that needs bubbles for a party or just to drink every night. And as a little side note, I found that this was particularly good in a mimosa. The floral notes weren't entirely muted by the OJ and the sharp bubbles still allowed for some texture. Pop a bottle, slap on some disco, celebrate something, enjoy yourself, and let me know what you think.

drink what you like,

db