Art Cava: Art, Science, Tradition

On our second day of the trip, our class got to take the morning and afternoon to visit Art Cava, this cava-maker located 40 minutes outside of Barcelona. Prior to getting there, our professors, Drs. Armstrong and Suarez, geared us to really think about how thinking the ways in which art, science and tradition has influence the designs and innovations seen throughout Spain. The day prior, our class got to visit La Sagrada Familia, so we had been already exposed to some of the art within Spain. However, for the following two, our class had to read an article focusing on the technology and science that large wineries back in the US used to overlook their grapes and wine.

Machines Used to Finish Making the Final Cava Product

With the knowledge of the science behind wineries in the US and the appreciation of the art from Antonio Gaudi and his La Sagrada Familia, I was ready to get to finally see in real time what producing cava (essentially champagne) consisted of. To my surprise, this particular cava producer, Art Cava, focused heavily on tradition, with the use of some technology for convenience. Unlike the automation typically seen in the wineries in the US, Art Cava placed a heavy emphasis on creating cava in a traditional sense. They would import the wine, and in conjunction with yeast, have the cava sit in storage facilities in their house to store until it was ready to be packaged.

At the start, the founders of Art Cava told us that their vision for the business is in tourism, to give their customers an immersed experience from when the wine gets imported to the final product of cava. With that in mind, it made much more sense why Art Cava kept the traditions of cava making instead of take a more automated approach in their production.