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Nine Spanish cava producers want to leave the Cava production area to form their own wine region approved by the EU. Since 2015, they have created the EU Corpinnat wine region, which is somewhat smaller than the DO Pénedes, through their association L'Associació d'Elaboradors i Viticultors Corpinnat (AVEC), which was founded for this purpose. The Cava growing area is more than twice as large. The nine farms are Gramona, Llopart, Nadal, Recaredo, Sabaté i Coca, Torelló, Huguet-Can Freixes, Júlia Bernat and Mas Candí.
They want to take the cava to a higher level with strict production methods, manual harvesting, the elaboration of the terroir, organic farming, minimum prices for grape producers, minimum 18-month maturing periods and the prohibition of processing cask wine. The EU approved Corpinnat in December 2017. This was followed by long discussions with the winegrowers' associations about integration into the existing DO and its mutual recognition. AVEC has now declared the talks to be without result, the companies are leaving the DO.
With these rules, the three largest cava producers - Cordoniu, Freixenet and García Carrión - are not able to offer wines as DO Corpinnat. The name is made up of two Catalan words: "Cor" in Catalan means heart, "Pinnat" points to the regional name Pénedes with its root "Pinnae" and means rock or stone.
(uka / photo: mickstephenson.photoshelter.com)