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02 May 2022

Spain: Cava Cabré & Sabaté.

Cabré & Sabaté is yet another packaging guise created by bespoke-label Cava maestro Jaume Serra for Mercadona and other supermarkets in Spain; this impressive winery also produces very good fizz for several UK retailers (Asda, Aldi, Morrison's...).
The Brut Non-Vintage (11.5% abv) is a typical Catalan blend of the Macabeu, Parellada and Xarel·lo varieties, and my guess would be that it undergoes slightly longer lees bottle ageing than other 'basic' Cavas due to its enticing toasted nut bread characters, as well as being a bit drier and crisper too.
The Reserva Chardonnay pictured above is modelled on a Blanc de Blancs Champagne style being single varietal Chardy in addition to several years' bottle ageing on the yeast lees: very tasty and classy bubbly in fact with richer creamier flavour while still dry and refreshing.
And their 2019 Vintage Brut Nature showed similar class, depth and elegance with delicious toasty yeasty background notes, slightly fuller palate and totally dry as denoted by 'Brut Nature' (no added sweetening before bottling).
These three Cavas are all ludicrously low-priced in Spanish supermarkets (€2 to €4) for the quality, probably due to low or non-existent excise taxes and, as far as I can tell, a reduced VAT rate of just 10%. Expect to pay at least £6 in the UK and €10 and Ireland for similar Cava made by Jaume Serra.

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Header image: Château de Flandry, Limoux, Languedoc. Background: Vineyard near Terrats in Les Aspres, Roussillon.