2011 Roger Goulart Cava Gran Reserva Brut Spain 750 ml

We Popped 100 Bottles One Friday Afternoon

On a recent Friday around 4:00 p.m., we popped the corks on almost 100 bottles of sparkling wine in our Napa offices. The selection ranged from Champagne and Cremant d’Alsace to Prosecco and Cava. In a fiercely competitive lineup, one bottle offered such an incredible combination of quality and value, that we fell in love. The 2011 Roger Goulart Cava Gran Reserva drinks like a $40 bottle at half the cost, showing an exuberant bouquet of lemon, honey, and brioche, with creamy richness on the palate and a crisp finish that goes on for miles. Traditional Champagne-style winemaking techniques, plus extended aging—six years spent in the cellar—give the 2011 its tremendous pedigree. 

The tradition of Cava making at Roger Goulart is deep. Founded in 1882, in Penedès, Catalonia, the estate was one of the first in Spain to produce Cava using the méthode champenoise—with secondary fermentation in the bottle, hand-riddling and extended aging. Over the course of more than a century, those techniques have changed very little. All this care and detail translates to a real everyday luxury, one to be enjoyed now and often, with an array of great foods—especially salty treats, like cheese, potato chips, truffle popcorn, and seafood.

The modernist winery facility, constructed in 1919 by Ignasi Mas i Morell, a contemporary of the famed architect, Antoni Gaudi, sits above a maze of cellar passageways, totaling half a mile in length, and dug nearly 100 feet into the ground. Salvador Dalí, another contemporary of Gaudi’s, was known to enjoy a few bottles of Goulart’s Cava and even visited the cellar in the 1950s.

The 2011 Gran Reserva is made from native Spanish grapes, Xarello, Macabeo, and Parellada, balanced by Chardonnay. Aged for six years before disgorgement, plus another year in bottle, the 2011 has gathered wonderful intensity but still maintains its crisp vibrancy. While the price tag may seem surreal, reminiscent of Dalí’s style, we can assure you that this is anything but. 840 bottles drawn directly from the cellars in Spain are up for grabs, but not for long.