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WORLD OF WINE: Drink these wines on Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is Saturday and, along with some fantastic Mexican styled food, there are some great wines to enjoy as well.

Not to be confused with Mexico’s Independence Day (Sept. 16), Cinco de Mayo celebrations the outnumbered and under-armed Mexican army’s unlikely victory over the vastly superior French army at the Battle of Puebla on this date in 1862 under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza.

Sparkling wines can be appreciated as an aperitif but better so with meals. The effervescence from Champagne, Prosecco and cava add tickle and liveliness to the meal and surrounding conversation.

While I’m sure any of the aforementioned sparkler wines could be served with a good Mexican meal, it is more appropriate to concentrate on Spain’s sparkling wine cava, so named after the cellars in which it is produced. These wines are produced using the same method as Champagne, being indicated on the label by Metodo Tradicional.

Lacking this designation, the wine was produced via the tank or Charmat method.

Three grape varieties are used to make basic cava. With macabeu being the primary grape, from a volume standpoint, but without the other two varietals, xarel-lo and paralleda, it would lack depth and character. The xarel-lo and paralleda add aroma and acidity, with zesty fruit flavors. Chardonnay is now allowed as a fourth grape to be used when a little more finesse is desired. The result is a balanced wine with fruity flavors that may be dry — Brut – to moderately sweet.

Like Champagne, cava producers have mostly non-vintage year wine blends with winemakers attempting to achieve standardization in taste expectations that consumers will respond to favorably. It obviously works, as worldwide sales of cava are sometimes reported higher than what is actually produced. Buyers beware – check labels carefully before committing to a purchase.

Again, like Champagne, they have vintage years where the cava is aged much longer — up to 30 months — and are given more attention than the non-vintage style. Look for “Reserva” — 15 months aging — or Gran Reserva — for a 30-month minimum aging, and vintage dated.

Although not enjoying the social standing of Champagne, one need not feel they’re going on the cheap when serving cava. It offers the best price to quality ratio in sparkling wine purchases.

The two biggest brands, Freixenet and Cordoníu, are very good along with Segura Viudas, Paul Cheneau and Mont-Marcal. Two other bonuses: low ABV at 12.5 percent, and SRP of $10 or lower. The low price is due mostly to the highly mechanized method of riddling their cava wines. A computer-operated machine called the gyropalette holds hundreds of bottles of cava and rotates them incrementally, to move the spent yeasts into the neck as traditional remuage — aka riddling.

Whether or not you celebrate Cinco de Mayo, cava is a pleasurable wine to consider.

Ron Smith, a retired NDSU Extension

horticulturist, writes weekly about his love of wine and its history. Readers can reach him at tuftruck1@gmail.com.

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