Pime Cava - the little guys speak up

This week saw the first public steps of Pime Cava (pron.: pee-MAY) a group of small and medium-sized cava makers that formed back in February, and who had been silent since. Tuesday, the group held a conference in Barcelona at which several of Pime Cava's organizers spoke, including group president Xavier Nadal (Cavas Nadal) and Agustí Torelló(Agusti Torelló i Mata). Quoted in La Vanguardia on Wednesday, Mr. Nadal emphasized that the goal of this group of 73 wineries is emphasize quality Cava, brake with soft pricing trends and promote indigeneous grape varieties, among other goals. Mr. Torelló added that the small and medium producers could, together as a group, be an important voice in a sector with two "large production companies who get bigger everyday and are less tied to the sector". Recent declarations of the end of the Cava War between two giants of Cava, Codorniú and Freixenet, may have caused concerns on the part of smaller producers that too much friendliness between the big guys might not be best for them.

Cava production is dominated by the two giants of Cava, Codorniú and Freixenet, who between them bottle more than two-thirds of all Cava. The last third is made by the other 244 Cava houses, who make up 91% of the total number of producers. The average production of these 244 Cava makers is 585,000€ of sales per year on 103,000 bottles.

It is not at present clear how Pime Cava plans to reach the goals outlined by its president, but hopefully they can help expand the reach of the quality small cavas to new customers.