For those of you just tuning in, last week, we asked you to participate in a Cava Wine Quiz! 13 questions were posed to those brave enough to press “T” for true and “F” for false. Tough, we know, but we enticed you into participating by offering a Free Catavino T-shirt. Did I mention, FREE? Thick and warm, it’s the perfect t-shirt to to drink cava in, re-gift to a friend, use as a wine glass cleaner…the possibilities are truly endless.

Today, Catavino promised to announce the grand winner of our Official Cava Wine Quiz, but strangely enough, we’ve drawn a tie. Of the handful of people who casted their votes, at least two answered 10 of the 13 questions accurately - keeping in mind that 2 of the 13 questions could have either been answered either True or False. Therefore, Catavino has decided to create the final and ultimate round of our Cava Quiz. We’re calling it: The Ultimate Cava Question!

Guess what? Anyone can participate! Even if you didn’t participate in the last quiz, you can now enter in this one. And to ensure a single, solitary winner, we’ve fashioned the game based on a number, similar to counting jellybeans in a jar! Even though I was always off by a couple thousand colorful beans, you can use your power of logic, intuition, and, well…Internet searching skills to find the right answer. Whoever gets closest to the correct answer, wins! Come on…give it a try! Put your answer in the comment section below!

The Ultimate Cava Question: In 2006, how many bottles of Cava were exported to the USA?

Bonus Points: In which month is 50% of all Cava sold?

And for those of you interested in the answer to our last …

Editor’s Note: During our month long dedication to Cava wine, we’ve made a little detour to the west, bringing you a unique style of sparkling wine elaborated in the heart of Portugal. However, when starting this article, I quickly realized that I dove into a subject that few have tackled. What is listed in wine encyclopedias, wine journals, websites and Portuguese books barely skim topic as to what defines a Portuguese sparkling wine. Try looking for information on exports, pricing or major producers, and you might as well throw in the towel. Hence, what I’ve compiled below is my best effort at trying to understand this topic with the help of from Viniportugal (Thank you Maria Joao!). I will be adding more details to this article, or posting additional articles, on the topic. In the meantime, if anyone can offer information, please don’t hesitate to chime in! I would love for us to put together something more comprehensive, and dare is say, accurate.

For those of you who can time travel back to August, when we attended a mask exhibit and wine tasting in Lisbon, you may remember an article where we essentially gushed adoringly over sparkling wines made by Murganheira, a Portuguese wine producer based in the Tras-o-Montes region. Today, with a bottle of Quinta da Lixa Espumante Bruto from DOC Vinho Verde, sitting in front of me, we thought it would prudent for us to give you a more expansive understanding of what it means to produce sparkling wine in Portugal.

Espumante, pronounced esh-pu-man-te, is the Portuguese version of a sparkling wine. And unlike Cava, produced solely in northern climates, Espumante is not only produced in the northern wet region of Vinho Verde, …