Cava ≠ Champagne

The most important fact I learned while on a cava winery tour at Freixenet Vineyards in Sant Sadurni D’Anoia, Spain, is that though it may look and taste like a lot like champagne, it is NOT. However, I feel I can safely argue the effects are definitely the same.

During a recent week long visit from my parents, we ventured to one of the most popular international brand cava bodegas located 40 minutes outside Barcelona’s city center. Sant Sadurni D’Anoia is known as the “Cava Capital” as it produces 90% of Spain’s entire cava export. Because of this notoriety, anyone associated with the location is sure to well educate you on the exact production process of its cava, noting especially the differences between cava and champagne.

To start, champagne is only made in France, and only then can it be labeled as true champagne. Secondly, the process has different steps, cava goes through two fermentations as opposed to just one. The bubbly tiny balls of air are the result of this second fermentation process that takes place inside the bottle – it is then and only then that the wine can legally be given the name cava. Otherwise, it can only be classified as sparkling wine, thus failing to obtain the prestigious label.

On the tour, we learned that “during the second fermentation process in the bottle, a type of liqueur known as licor de tiraje is added (made from sugar, yeast and cava) which causes the bubbles by producing carbonic gas. The bottles are corked with metal tops and stored horizontally in the darkest and coolest part of the cellar.”

The next step in the process – known as el degüello del cava (taking the top off the cava) uncorks the bottles allowing the pressure of the contents that have accumulated in the bottleneck to be forced out.

And finally, the bottle is sealed again with a traditional cork, held in place by wire. The quality of cava is a question of time: the wine starts its second fermentation process in the bottle within three months.

• The more bubbles a cava has and the smaller the bubbles are designates it is a YOUNG cava.
• The less bubbles a cava has and the bigger the bubbles are categorizes it an AGED cava.

The last marketing step of cava production is of course, the labeling and shipping. Below is a video of this last step. Each minute, 40 bottles of cava are packaged.

Freixenet exports the most cava to the following countries:

1. Germany
2. United States
3. The United Kingdom

After a very informative 90 minute tour through the winery, my favorite part finally came: the tasting! We tried the Cordón Negro Reserva. Cheers! (Or in Spain, Salud!)

The first job

Leaving the college life and entering the work world is going to be a tough transition, however it is an inevitable one. While I do enjoy what free time I have now as a college student, which honestly is not much, I am eager to enter the consistent and steady world of work. Yes, I’m going to miss those late nights and lazy mornings, but I’m ready to publicly apply everything I’ve learned and gained at college. After all, it’s what I’ve been preparing these past four years for: the job.

While I do not have one just yet, I value every experience and responsibility I encounter along the way to help me prepare for this eventual endeavor. These are 5 C’s of Success I’ve found to establishing and maintaining yourself in the workplace:

1. Character
2. Class
3. Confidence
4. Competency
5. Chemistry

For more detail on these, Listen to some tips to know how to function and manage yourself on the job. I am by no means an expert in this area, as I will have recently graduated, but hopefully the advice of a college kid can help those who will eventually be professionals out there with me.

Tactic: social media

Social media 2.0 has taken the Internet captive. Anything you would have imagined to go into a communications strategy or PR plan four years ago has since been widened by the integration of social media.

Last month on March 1, 2008 The University of Georgia and Edelman joined together to host the Edelman Digital Bootcamp. College students from all over the state of Georgia had the opportunity to utilize social media tools hands-on in their own communications plans. This was a great way for students to learn outside the classroom about the wide range of social media tools available and then actually integrate them into tactics.

As a UGA student in the Word of Mouth Communication class, my role at the Bootcamp was to provide live social media coverage of the event throughout the day. This required using Twitter to give constant updates and feedback about what was going on at the event, blogging to sum up key points of the seminars and speakers, podcasting interviews with key attendees of the event, and uploading pictures to flickr to showcase visual highlights of the day. Check out this podcast to listen to an interview I held with a fellow UGA attendee discussing what he thinks are the advantages and disadvantages of social media. Every new communications medium has a positive and negative side to it, but either way, these tools are excellent non-traditional ways to dive into the media stream and get noticed: whether it be your company, your client, yourself, or a new product.

Mothers are a girl’s best friend (Part 1)

It’s a common cliché to hear that “diamonds are a girl’s best friend” but after spending two weekends in a row with my mom (which has not happened since I moved away to college 4 years ago…), I have decided to re-write that line. Diamonds are nice, but mothers truly are forever.

My mother visited to Athens two weekends ago for our last mother/daughter sorority brunch we will ever experience together. We split our time half in Atlanta and half in Athens so she could experience the world’s largest aquarium first-hand: The Georgia Aquarium.

It’s easy to pretend you’re five years old in that place with so many tanks, fish, interactive videos and diagrams to run around being curious about. I don’t think I have never seen my mom’s eyes grow so big so fast and so many times in just two hours. It was a wonderful experience to be two grown adults acting like children together, not as mother and daughter, but as two girlfriends. I really never thought moments like this were possible once you reached a certain age/point in your life, however, it seems that this is when those exact moments begin.

Here we are posing with a starfish we found plastered to the glass:

Our weekend as girls, not as a mother and daughter pair, was an unexpected and incredibly pleasant eye-opening detour. Thus, I look very forward to more experiences with my mother as two friends. She is a wonderful woman and I can only look up to her. I was anxious to be with her the next weekend in Wilmington, North Carolina to play some more!

Seniors only: After Graduation

At our most recent Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) meeting, we had young professionals from the PR field as well as a financial adviser from Ameriprise Financial come in to talk to the seniors about what to expect, and not to expect, after graduation.

I must admit, I was a little nervous entering the room because I was about to hear what every college graduate cannot predict: the transition into the career world. This world includes far more (financial) independence than I am personally ready to possess. However, personal financial advisor, Gary L. Harr from Gainesville, GA, helped break down some of these money responsibilities for us.

Here are the $$$ tips that I found to be most helpful:

1. Start building cash reserves ASAP.
2. ALWAYS, ALWAYS inquire about disability insurance (because your most valuable skill at age 22 is your mind, and if you become disabled and unable to work you want to make sure you’re covered)
3. Invest in something (for recent grads it’s safer to invest in a CD or mutual fund, not risky stocks)
4. Understand your retirement options: 401K vs. Roth IRA

• If your company offers a matching option, chose their 401k plan

• If they don’t, opt for the Roth IRA

5. TOP 3 documents to have: (they only average about $150-$200 per document)

• Living will
• Will
• Medical Power of Attorney

This was quite overwhelming, but incredibly valuable information that I know I needed to hear sooner rather than later, ie before I go bankrupt and max out all my credit cards.