Cava de Guarda

Spanish · base Cava category

Cava de Guarda is the base Cava category, with at least 9 months of ageing.1,2

The nine months are spent on lees in the same bottle, between tirage and disgorgement.2,4 This matches the EU minimum for the traditional method, at least nine months on lees without interruption.5 Guarda is by far the largest category: 88.05% of the 190,010,000 bottles sold in 2025.3 Longer-aged wines belong to Cava de Guarda Superior: Reserva, Gran Reserva and Paraje Calificado.1 See Cava and ageing minimums.

See also

CavaRegionsCava de Guarda SuperiorGlossaryMinimum ageing by appellationMethodsCavaGlossary

Sources

  1. Consejo Regulador DO Cava. Categories and types
  2. Consejo Regulador DO Cava. Pliego de condiciones DOP Cava
  3. Consejo Regulador DO Cava. Resumen datos económicos 2025 DO Cava (2026)
  4. Consejo Regulador DO Cava. Resumen normas Segmentación y Zonificación
  5. legislation.gov.uk (copy of EU OJ text). Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33, Article 53 (terms referring to certain production methods), original version as adopted (2018-10-17)

Facts checked on 2026-10-19