Las Arenas Hotel hosted the Burbuja de Oro event, organised by Verema and FASCV, the Federation of Valencian Summillers.

As in previous years it was a multi-faceted event with a ‘Showroom’ comprising several bodegas, importers and/or distributors showing a range of top Champagnes and Cavas.

The event is aimed at professionals from the wine trade, hostelry, the specialist press and winemakers and combines not only the showroom but also a tutored tasting of wines from Corpinnat (a grouping of former DO Cava makers) now making aged cavas to a strict set of rules and the annual competition amongst sumilleres to identify the best taster in a blind tasting competition with a winning prize of 2000€.

Doors open at 12.00pm  with the showroom being available until the event closes at 20.30pm.

We commenced with a visit to the stand of Pago Vera Estenas and a chat with Fali Martinez who was showing his cava, for the first time with its new ‘Pago label’ and presentation box.  We also visited the stands of Cava Bodega of the Year  and third best Bodega in Spain, Hispano+Suizas as designated by ‘La Razon’, and then to Pago de Tharsys.

Next stand was that of Mariano Taberner from El Ponton who was showing his range of ‘Ancestral’ wines most of which are exported to a growing number of countries.

The making of Cava commenced in Cataluña in the 19^th Century so our next visit was to taste the range of wines from  the House of Roger Goulart from Barcelona, founded in 1882. We enjoyed an organic cava as well as Reservas and Gran Reservas going back to 2014.

As well as providing the wines for the tutored tasting Corpinnat were showing a range of the wines from Penedes which make up the group. In particular we enjoyed the Terrers and Serral del Vall Brut Nature´s from Recaredo  and of course the Gramona Llustros and a monovarietal Xarel-Lo.

From Champagne we tasted three wines from Maison Phillipponnat whose vineyards are in Ay and which dates back to the 16^th Century.

One ‘oddity’ we enjoyed was a Cava from Penedes whose licor d’expedición was a Palo Cortado sherry, a Xarel-lo, Colet Navazos is an Extra Brut with a decidedly Jerezano touch!

For the Sumilleres affiliated to FASCV the main part of the day is devoted to finding the best taster of Sparkling wines. The competition has run for several years now and is in two parts. The first, during the morning,  is a blind tasting of five wines and an exam phase for all entrants, drawn from across all the affiliated Associations of Sumilleres in the Valencian Community.

Later, during the afternoon, the top ten form the finalist group who are asked to taste five sparkling wines blind, evaluate them over fifty minutes, writing a tasting note, identifying varieties, country of origin etc. The competition was moderated by Mari Lusar Martinez, former President of FASCV and prizes were awarded by current President, David Remolar Ramos.

In this event the winner takes 2000€, a visit to Juvé y Camps bodega, a training course,  a box of wines and a decanter. The second prize is 500€. The successful tasters were:

• First Prize. Roberto Estébanez (CdT)
• Second Prize : Javier Cantos (Rincon del Faro)
• Third Prize: Remi Rull (ASUCAP)

Finally the Corpinnat tasting took place at 13.00 which unfortunately we were unable to attend on this occasion 10 wines were shown in what was reported to be an exceptional tasting tutored by Ton Mata from Recaredo and Paco de la Rosa from Torelló.

This was another educational event as well as an opportunity to catch up with many friends and acquaintances who have been unable to do this for a couple of years.