I lost South Africa so I'll settle for some bubble (#3)

I was originally hoping to tell you about a couple nice and inexpensive South African wines I had over the weekend but I seem to have misplaced my tasting notes and therefore can't even tell you what's on the label. So instead of a short visit to a winery in South Africa, I'll tell you about a couple really nice bubbly's I had for under $15 in class today!
I can also tell you about some of the cool things I learned in class today :)

The first bubbly we tried was the Codornius Brut No-Vintage Cava DO from Spain.
11.5% alc and only $13.99!
It was interesting to find out that most Sparkling wines in the quality production are actually blends from several vintages so that the winemaker can maintain a consistency for the brand. Therefore, in 5 years from now when you're going to the shelf at your local liquor store to grab this particular Cava, it should taste very similar to the one I tried today. Wines like these are also released as demand comes in for them so they're pretty much meant to be drunk asap.
I also found it very interesting that whereas Champagne in France denotes a particular geographic region, Cava DO in Spain denotes not the geographic region but the wine making techniques and therefore this denomination for a wine is very unique, but also very cool. Cava's can be from anywhere in Spain but by saying Cava on their label, they are advertising to the world that they are made in a traditional method for making sparkling wines. This traditional method means that there is a second fermentation in the bottle, the wine is subject to autolysis(a special type of aging) which gives it a slightly more bready/yeasty character, and then the dead yeast cells are removed in a particular manner thus allowing this wine to carry the prestigious title of Cava, or traditionally made sparkling wine.

Now onto the Codurniu Cava:
I found this wine to be fairly pale and yellow on first sight and the bubbles were definitely a lot smaller than I had seen in previous wines. On the nose it was clean and the flavours weren't very intense. Peach came out instantly and was followed by a sugary, frosting like character. There was also some citrus/lemon, some apple and definitely a subtle yeasty tone to the wine as well. On the palate this wine was really well balanced. It was dry with high acid making it very crisp and refreshing. Very light in body with a mild tartness on the tongue probably from the yeast. The primary flavours that came out were green apple and citrus. The finish on this wine was in the medium to long range.
Overall a fantastically yummy wine. Absolutely exceptional worth trying for the $13.99 price tag. I kept smelling and taking sips of this wine until our teacher gave us our next wine to try and I had to finally move on. Can't wait to get a bottle of this for myself!

The other wine I want to tell you about is a wine from Italy.
the Martini e Rossi No-Vintage Asti DOCG Italy 7% alc and price of $14.49.
A breakfast wine if I ever tasted one.
At first sight, this wine is clean and pale yellow with some medium sized bubbles. The bubbles were a little bigger on this one because Asti is Tank fermented as opposed to bottle fermented like the Cordorniu. Tank fermentation is another method of making the wine bubble which encourages the preservation of the natural fruit character in the wine. This is especially great for a wine like Asti since it's made from the incredibly flavourful Muscat grape.
On the nose this wine is clean with pronounced fruit, like big fruit about to punch you in the face it's just that big. There's some peach (like growers peach cider), some floral notes, some strawberry, some honey and it's got a bit of a grapey tone which shouldn't be surprising since the wine comes from a grape but for some reason, whenever I smell grape I'm surprised.
My notes for the palate start out with FRUIT, MORE FRUIT, YUMMY and well, what more do you need! It's a sweet wine with med acidity and is very light in body. The peach notes really come out as does some honey tones. The length of the finish is medium and this wine is very good. for $15, it's an any occasion wine! I'm thinking about cutting out mimosas as a traditional breakfast drink and substituting it with straight Asti. It's just that good.

Well, I'm sorry I wasn't able to provide my notes on the South African wines I wanted to tell you about but I hope that the sparkling wine notes didn't disappoint! We all need a little bubbly in our life after all!