The history of the Spanish Freixenet starts some 150 years ago in the small Spanish village of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, where the Sala family started making wine. At the beginning of the 20th century, Dolores Sala marries Pedro Ferrer Bosch and the couple starts to conquer the European market as a whirlwind, with a sparkling wine: the Cava. This is a sparkling wine that is usually produced in the Catalan hills around Barcelona. For a long time, Cava was especially popular in Spain, but since the 1990s, the rest of Europe and the world have been conquered at breakneck speed. One of the best known Cava’s is the Freixenet Cordon Negro, in the typical matte black bottle.
Alcohol-free
This Cordon Negro is still a very popular product from Freixenet, but they also have many other types of Cava in the range. Brut, sweet, rosé, slightly chic and a bit simpler, Freixenet produces a cava to everyone’s taste and budget
Recently they also started the production of alcohol-free Cava, the Legero sparkling. There is a white and a rosé version of the legero sparkling, we wanted to taste the white one.
Production
Freixenet legero sparkling is decalcoholized sparkling wine. Two years of research was done to find the ideal production process for this non-alcoholic freixenet. Eventually the alcohol was withdrawn from the cava by vacuum distillation. This process is done at a low temperature and without pressure or temperature difference in order to retain the taste as optimally as possible.
Shame about the bottle
Before we start talking about the taste of the Freixenet, we must say that something bothers us a bit. We find it somewhat unfortunate that the bottle of the Freixenet legero sparkling looks a bit cheaper than that of the other Freixenet cavas. The Cordon Negro, the Prosecco D.OC. and, for example, the Freixenet Ice, come in beautiful bottles that immediately add a festive touch to your table. Legero sparkling has to do with a much simpler bottle and label. A bit of a shame, but this entirely aside.
Very tasty
The most important thing is of course the taste of the product, and there they are quite right with Freixenet legero sparkling. The biggest fright of many people when you serve them an alcohol-free sparkling wine is that it will be a sweet decoction of the real stuff. This is definitely not the case with this legero sparkling. The cava is not too sweet at all. It may be slightly sweeter than a very dry alcoholic cava, but it has a fresh acidity that makes it a nicely balanced product. You taste and smell a lot of fruit. Apple, peach, melon are all present and provide a fruity, but again, no sweet taste.
Once poured into your glass, the Freixenet of course looks just like a cava should look. The bubbles are on the large side and they are abundant. Not at all like a fine sparkling Champagne, but we have the impression that these larger and numerous bubbles also ensure that the non-alcoholic Freixenet has a sharper edge, ideal for slightly replacing the taste of the absent alcohol. .
Conclusion
When you give a party and you want an alternative for your guests who do not drink alcohol, you cannot do anything wrong with this Freixenet. On this site you will also find some recipes where you can use non-alcoholic cava, of course this cava is also very suitable for them.
