Cava substitutes

The obvious and correct swap. Prosecco is Italian, made by a different method in tanks rather than bottles, which makes it fruitier, softer and more floral with larger, frothier bubbles. Cava is drier, leaner and slightly more savoury with a faint bready, nutty note from bottle ageing. In a sauce or a pot of steamed clams the difference is undetectable. In a glass, prosecco tastes noticeably sweeter and more peachy.

Best for

steamed clams and mussels, pan sauces and risotto, sangria and cocktails, drinking, poaching fish or pears

Choose brut or extra dry rather than a sweet prosecco if the dish is savoury, since residual sugar in a reduced pan sauce becomes very obvious. For cocktails and sangria the extra fruitiness of prosecco is usually an improvement, not a compromise. Champagne works identically and is a waste of money in anything cooked.

For anything cooked, this is genuinely as good as cava and often cheaper. The bubbles in sparkling wine disappear within seconds of hitting a hot pan and contribute nothing to the finished dish - what cava actually provides is dry acidity, a light fruity aroma and alcohol to dissolve and carry flavours. Any crisp unoaked white does all three. Albarino, being Spanish and Galician, keeps the dish tasting Spanish; Sauvignon Blanc is grassier and sharper.

Best for

steamed clams and mussels, paella and rice dishes, pan sauces and deglazing, risotto, braises and poaching liquids

Avoid oaked or buttery Chardonnay, which brings a vanilla-and-toast character that fights with shellfish and Spanish flavours. Avoid anything labelled cooking wine, which is heavily salted and will wreck your seasoning. Rule of thumb: if you would happily drink a glass of it, it will cook well.

A very good pantry option because it keeps for months in the fridge, unlike an open bottle of wine. Dry vermouth is a fortified, herb-infused white wine, so it brings the same dry acidity plus a herbal, faintly bitter aromatic edge from wormwood and botanicals. A clam or mussel broth made with it tastes more complex and slightly medicinal-herbal compared to cava's clean fruitiness. It is also stronger, hence using less.

Best for

steamed clams and mussels, pan sauces, risotto, poaching fish, cocktails

This is the professional kitchen shortcut - a bottle of dry vermouth in the fridge means you never lack white wine again. Use it more sparingly than wine because both the alcohol and the botanicals are concentrated. Not a good choice for sangria or anything where the drink is served cold and unreduced, where the herbal note dominates.

The most Spanish substitute on this list and a real upgrade in some dishes. Fino and manzanilla sherry are bone dry, and they carry a distinctive salty, nutty, yeasty character from flor ageing that cava only hints at. Clams cooked in fino taste deeply savoury and unmistakably Andalusian rather than light and crisp. It is stronger and more assertive than cava, so use less or the dish tastes of sherry rather than of the shellfish.

Best for

clams and shellfish, chicken and mushroom dishes, pan sauces, soups and consommes, Spanish rice dishes

Use fino or manzanilla, not cream sherry or the sweet dark styles, which will sugar your sauce. Do not use bottled cooking sherry - it is salted. An open bottle of fino oxidises within a couple of weeks in the fridge, so buy a half bottle if you cook with it occasionally.

The non-alcoholic option, and the added acid is not optional. Grape juice on its own is far sweeter than cava and lacks the acidity that makes wine work in cooking, so a sauce made with plain grape juice comes out cloying and flabby. With lemon juice or a little vinegar added it works surprisingly well, keeping the fruit aroma and the tartness. For drinking or sangria, sparkling grape juice with a squeeze of lemon and lots of ice is a genuinely pleasant drink.

Best for

non-alcoholic sangria and punches, poaching pears and fruit, pan sauces where alcohol is avoided, steaming shellfish

Cutting the sweetness is the whole trick - taste the mixture and keep adding lemon juice until it makes you wince slightly, because a lot of that sharpness cooks off. Non-alcoholic sparkling wines, increasingly available, are better still and closer to the real thing. Also fine: chicken or vegetable stock plus a squeeze of lemon, for savoury dishes where fruit is unwelcome.

The honest answer when there is no wine in the house. Cava in a savoury dish supplies liquid, acidity and a little aroma. Stock covers the liquid and adds savoury depth, and lemon juice covers the acidity. The dish will taste rounder, heavier and less bright, missing the specific fruity-mineral lift wine gives, but a pot of clams made with stock and lemon is a good pot of clams. In sangria or any drink, this substitution does not exist - the wine is the drink.

Best for

clams and mussels, pan sauces and deglazing, risotto, braises, alcohol-free cooking

Add the lemon juice at the end rather than at the start, since long cooking dulls it. For risotto specifically, this substitution shows most - the wine at the start of a risotto sets its whole acidic backbone - so add a little extra lemon and a splash of vinegar off the heat at the finish.