Cava - Spanish Sparkling Wine

In keeping with my last post on New Years,I wanted to write a bit about Cava, the Spanish sparkling wine. Although many have drank it, few know anything about it, including me.
I'm breaking it up into three parts. Here today you will find a very brief history of Cava. Tomorrow will be the more technical stuff, what grapes are used, how its made, etc... And follwing that, we will discuss different options out there.

History of Cava
Found this good description:
The homeland of cava is Penedès, located approximately 40km southwest of Barcelona. The region is surrounded by rough and rocky elevation of Montserrat, and enjoys the ideal climate for wine-making, protected from the heat and humidity of the Mediterranean and the harsh northern and eastern winds, known as levanter. The soil of the Penedès region is excellent for grape-growing, with chalky top layers over clay and a deeper layer of rocky, poor soil, causing the vines to thrive with deep roots.

Cava was born in the second half of the nineteenth century from a change in grape variety and one man's idea: In the second half of the nineteenth century,
the vineyards of Penedès were badly infested by phylloxerae (grape root bugs). When the vineyards were replanted, white grapes were planted instead
of the traditional red grapes. At that time, Jose Rabentos, who was traveling in the Champagne region of France, saw that region's distinctive sparkling
wine and thought of producing such a wine himself. In 1872, he succeeded in producing Spain's first sparkling wine, called cava. In a short time, cava gained tremendous popularity in the market.