The Solera System Flashcards
What barrels are used for ageing Sherry?
Sherry has to be aged in 600-litre oak barrels called butts
What is the specification of butts?
The butts are often used to mature unfortified wines before they are used to mature Sherry so that any oak flavour is eliminated.
How much the butts are filled?
Since the oak is needed to allow oxygen to reach the wine, this is encouraged by only filling them to five-sixths.
What is the main challenge for Sherry making in Jerez?
Keeping the maturation environment cool
How do Sherry producers keep the maturation environment cool?
Traditional bodegas have thick whitewashed walls, high ceilings and windows that point towards the cooling poniente winds. Now some are air-conditioned.
How does a correct level of humidity maintained?
The earth floors of bodegas are kept damp
Describe the solera system.
It is made up of a number of groups of butts, referred to as levels. These levels hold wines of different average ages. These levels are called criaderas and the maturation process involves moving wine between them over time to achieve a blend of younger and older wines.
What does the maturation process involve?
It involves moving wine between them over time to achieve a blend of younger and older wines.
How do Sherry producers avoid confusion when blending wines?
Solera system is used to refer to the maturation system as a whole while solera is used to refer to the final level in the system that holds wine of the oldest average age. Wine for bottling is taken out of the solera system from the solera. An equal amount of wine is taken from each butt in this level.
Why is the Solera System considered as a versatile system?
Because it can be used to sustain biological and oxidative ageing.
Summarise the Solera system:
Wine for bottling is taken out of the solera system from the solera. An equal amount of wine is taken from each butt in this level. The solera is not fully emptied and the butts are replenished with the same volume of wine taken from butts in the next level that contain wine of a slightly younger age called the first criadera. There are three steps involved in this replenishment. An equal volume of wine is taken from each butt in the first criadera. All of the wine from the first criadera is then mixed together. Finally this blended wine is used to top up each butt in the solera. The first criadera is then replenished in exactly the same fashion with wine from the second criadera and so on, so that each criadera is being replenished in turn with younger wine. The criadera containing the youngest wine is usually replenished with sobretabla wine.
How many criadera are involved in a Sherry production facility?
as few as three to as many as 14
Why isn’t it possible to talk about the age of Sherry?
As a result of the systematic blending that happens every time wine is moved between the levels of the system, it is only possible to talk about the average age of wines that are taken out for bottling or blending.
What is the main advantage of the Solera System?
the advantage it offers is that wine taken out of it for bottling or blending is the same every time. It is the feature of this system that the wine introduced into a new level takes on the characteristics of the older wine it has been blended with.
When can the consistency of the wine in the Solera system be compromised?
if wine of poor quality is fed into the system in the first place or too much wine is taken out each year.
