Tag Archives: Parellada

60 Second Wine Review — Insito Extra Brut Cava

A few quick thoughts on the Insito Extra Brut Cava made by Bodegues Sumarroca.

The Geekery

The Sumarroca family originally hailed from Llimiana, in Pallars Jussà in Catalonia, but moved to the Penedès region in the 1980s when they purchased the Molí Coloma estate in Subirats.

By 1983, Bodegues Sumarroca was producing sparkling Cava. The family’s holdings expanded greatly in 1999 when they bought the Cava house of Marquis of Monistrol–gaining nearly a 1000 acres of vineyards in the prime sparkling wine terroir around the village of Sant Sadurni d’Anoia.

The Insito Cava is sometimes sold as “In Situ” in other markets (from the Latin phrase meaning “on site”) and refers to the Sumarroca’s family philosophy of only using estate grown fruit instead of supplementing with purchased fruit like many of the larger Cava houses.

Made in an Extra Brut style with less than 3 g/l sugar dosage, the wine is a blend of nearly equal amounts of Macabeu, Xarel·lo and Parellada that was aged 16 months prior to disgorging.

The winery is ISO 9001:2008 certified and practices sustainable viticulture.

The Wine

High intensity nose. A mix of citrus fruit and some pastry dough toastiness. There is also a white floral element.

Photo by Nillerdk. Released on Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-3.0

The combination of zesty lemon, toasty pastry dough and weighty mousse reminds me of a danish pastry.

On the palate this sparkler has a very lively mouthfeel with the zesty citrus notes becoming more defined as lemon. With the toastiness carrying through and the heavy weight of the mousse this Cava has me thinking of lemon cream cheese danishes. Impeccably well balanced for an Extra Brut, the wine is dry and citrus without being tart. The white floral notes come back for the moderate length finish but still aren’t very defined.

The Verdict

At around $15-18 this is an outstanding sparkling wine for folks who are craving something drier than Prosecco (and many American sparklers) but more complex than your typical Cava.

I wouldn’t use this as a “mixer bubbles”. It’s certainly worth savoring with dinner and on its own.

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60 Second Wine Review — Segura Viudas Cava

A few quick thoughts on the Segura Viudas Brut sparkling Cava.

The Geekery

The Segura Viudas website is pretty useless when it comes to finding out information about grape varieties, time spent on the lees or dosage with the page on the Brut Cava dedicated more to “lifestyle” uses instead of actual details about the wine.

From Essi Avellan and Tom Stevenson’s Christie’s World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine, I learned that since 1984 Segura Viudas has belonged to the huge mega-corp of Freixenet which controls nearly 50% of all Spanish sparkling wine production, making over 200 million bottles a year.

In addition to Segura Viudas, Freixent makes Castellblanch, Canals & Nubiola and Conde de Caralt.

Production of the Segura Viudas Brut is around 7 million bottles and is usually a blend of 50% Macabeo, 35% Parellada and 15% Xarel-lo.

The Wine

By John Knox - originally posted to Flickr as Grapefruit and Orange Juice Mimosas, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8046882

The best use for this sparkler is with cocktails.

Medium minus intensity on the nose. Citrusy lemon and pommelo with a little apple notes as well.

On the palate, it feels very fresh without any toasty or biscuity notes which hints that the aging is closer to the bare minimum of 9 months required for Cava rather than much beyond it. It has a nice roundness to the mouthfeel with a hint of sweetness which also suggest that it is probably closer to the 10-11 g/l dosage that would put it at the “sweeter end” of Brut.

The Verdict

Very pleasant and easy sipping sparkler. It will hold its own as a brunch time bubble and as a great mixer for mimosas, Bellini or other sparkling cocktails. At around $8 a bottle, it certainly offers more character than your basic Korbel and is leaps and bounds better than other budget sparklers like Cook’s and Andre’s.

However, there are certainly other Cavas and even Proseccos around the same price point that deliver a bit more value.

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