In Spain (particularly in the Catalan region where most Cava is produced and consumed), the bubbly seems to run through the locals' veins. (Selling for about two dollars a glass in a café, that becomes a distinct possibility.) At many tapas bars, it's easy to get a sense of the "everyday" quality of the drink, as glasses are ordered as often as beer or wine. It also retains a cachet that causes heads to turn when a bottle is opened.

Where smaller producers have more room to maneuver, especially in the United States, is with value. Wine-wise, Americans look for the most bang (or in this case, "pop") for their buck, which is one of Gramona's strong suits. The company also picked up on Americans' willingness to fork over larger sums of money as long as the value is high.

When Gramona chose to go into the American market three years ago, its research on Spanish wines and Cavas wasn't all roses.

"The Spanish Cava and wine market in the United States was going down three years ago," says Gramona's marketing director, Montse Alonso. "We noticed that though still wines were selling less, their value was going up."

The population, she surmised, was looking for something good, not something cheap. "When people know about wine, they spend a lot of money on it," she says.

The idea she brought back to Spain was to sell some of Gramona's best stuff to the United States, not their base or middle-of-the-road-offerings, like most other Cava exporters were doing. It's one thing to buy cheap sparkling wine and get what you pay for, but it's much more impressive when you pay $30 and have your socks knocked off.

It hasn't been easy. "It's frustrating," says Alonso. "There are some wineries in Catalonia that are exporting some of their worst stuff and it casts a negative image." So for the last few years, Alonso has been living out of a suitcase in the United States for four months a year, to get the word out. "People who work with wine have heard about it, but most people just don't know."

For Gramona, cracking the market is a feat Alonso chalks up to what she terms "crazy traveling."

"I go about two times a year for two months to show people what we do and introduce them to Cava," she says. "Sometimes it's two cities in a day."

"It was hard to do, because we made more money selling the same wine in Spain," she says, but the idea paid off. Three years after entering the US market, eight percent of Gramona's exports now go to America.

Little by little, Cava is carving out a niche that's not based on price alone, and this is especially felt at Cava maker Albet i Noya, which exports to 23 countries.

"The difficulty used to be in the price range," says export manager Josep Jové. "There are huge brands like Freixenet and Codorníu which tended to price things lower," but along with Gramona, Albet i Noya has found its niche by providing wines of excellent value.

Jové is also happy to see that at least a few people are catching on to what Cava is in the United States. "I promote it as a high-quality sparkling wine," he says. "I don't want to give people the idea that it's a Champagne substitute."     

[19-Dec-2005]