Cava Producers’ Feud Making Image Go Flat

An ugly dispute between Spain’s two biggest producers of cava, the country’s top quality sparkling wine, is damaging its image.

Tension between rival cava makers Codorniu and Freixenet, both popular brands in the United States, started to grow in December but did not cause alarm in the secretive industry until last month when they began exchanging public accusations of irregularities in the production process.

Cava makers have appealed directly to the chairmen of the two family-owned companies for a truce and asked the government to investigate.

“It is high time this quarrel between the two giants is stopped as it only prejudices all of us and our product and can even give cava a bad name in other markets,” said one small producer who asked not to be identified.

Cava, a denomination approved and ratified by the European Union in 1989, comes from around Penedes, 30 miles south of Barcelona in the northeast region of Catalonia.

There were 269 firms on the cava regulating council’s list last year. However, cava giants Codorniu and Freixenet produced 70% of the total of 144 million bottles.

The dispute began when Codorniu, established in 1551 and the older of the two firms, accused the “upstart” Freixenet of violating rules on aging.

Codorniu, which bottled the first Spanish cava--then called champagne--in 1872, said Freixenet was not letting its bottles rest for the mandatory nine months, thus cutting costs considerably.

Freixenet, producing since 1899, hit back, accusing its competitor of unlawfully watering vines and using pinot noir grapes, which are not officially approved for making cava.

The Spanish press dubbed the exchange “Falcon Crest Spanish style,” referring to the old American television series about the squabbles of a wine-making family.

The accusations began to surface after Freixenet said its sales had surpassed those of its archrival for the first time.

Codorniu denies there any link between the sales data and the current mudslinging.

“We do not have anything against Freixenet; we are defending the cava sector,” Codorniu spokesman Enrique Saul said.

Other producers in Penedes say privately they are convinced the dispute disguises a commercial war between the two giants.

“This is a tantrum by the firm which has always been No. 1 and cannot stand losing,” one said.

Freixenet spokesman Santiago Ramon said the Codorniu claims stemmed from jealousy.

Official figures for last year show that while Codorniu remained the biggest domestic seller, Freixenet had a larger share of the lucrative export market.

More than 60 million bottles of cava were exported last year, generating 25 billion pesetas ($200 million). Codorniu said its share of the export market was 20% compared with Freixenet’s 70%.

Local politicians and smaller cava producers have watched the quarrel with concern because the industry represents nearly 12% of Catalonia’s gross domestic product and they are worried about possible repercussions on the export market.

The producers persuaded the chairmen of Codorniu and Freixenet to promise to halt their recriminations and the Ministry of Agriculture has stepped in to see if their complaints are founded.

Growers and producers are watching for possible reactions from French champagne producers, with whom they increasingly compete in the export market.

Cava sales in the United States rose 17% last year, but cava makers still say they have a hard time competing with the French.

Last year France exported 80 million bottles of champagne, only a third more than the cava producers, but the French earned six times more for their product.

“The French must be rubbing their hands gleefully watching this war, because it can only help boost their exports,” another cava maker said.