THE SOLERA SYSTEM.

The distinctive feature in the production of sherry is the solera, which signifies foundation, and means old wine kept in casks, which are never moved as long as the solera exists, and on the foundation of which younger wines are reared.

The casks are arranged in groups, piled in tiers, and the groups into scales. The distinctive feature of the system is a series, commencing with a very old wine, followed by a younger one, and so on down the scale to the youngest, so that when wine for blending and shipment is drawn from the group of casks constituting the oldest solera, they are replenished from the group of casks of the next younger solera, and these again from those of the next younger, and so on through the scale, thus keeping up the characters of the soleras.

Establishing a Solera.—The following from the address of Mr. Pohndorff before the Viticultural Convention held at San Francisco in September, 1882, gives a good idea of how to establish a solera:

Select the finest wines of a year’s vintage, put them away by themselves, and carefully care for them and nurse them by racking, etc., during the year. The next year, separate the finest wines from the vintage, always leaving ullage in the casks of three to five gallons, according to size, and the bungs loose, simply laid over the hole. Go on in this way for five years. Now a fifth of this five-year-old wine may be drawn off for, and used to establish another solera, and the casks refilled from the four-year-old wine, which, of course, must be as nearly as possible of the same nature. With the younger wines, you may do the same, except those of one and two years old, which are not yet soleras, but young wines. You have then a solera of this five-year-old wine, which is one-fifth four-year-old wine, and this may be called the mother solera. At the end of ten years more, you can say that you have a solera fifteen years of age; though during the period, you have drawn off periodically a small portion of it and replaced it with the next younger, always providing that the younger wine is similar, for this quality is of much greater importance than the difference of a year or two in age, for wine a year or two younger or older, if of the same kind, will not injure the solera, but its character may be destroyed by mixing with it wine of a different nature.

A solera, then, really consists of a mixture of wines of different years. The head of each cask is inscribed with the distinguishing mark of its solera, and the number of butts of which it is composed.

“The Standard Soleras,” says Gen. Keyes, “are those from which the wine is drawn for shipment, and their contents have rested in, and permeated through, a series of groups called feeders”—a solera sometimes dating back a century, it is said. “At every stage the wine is graded, so that the best young wine passes ultimately into the oldest and highest priced solera. When there is only a small number of feeders, say two or three, in the group next behind the standard solera, the wine ought not be drawn out for shipment oftener than twice a year; but when there are many, say twelve, the wine for shipment may be drawn out every two months. To make myself understood in this complicated process, I must explain the principle upon which it is founded. When wine is needed for shipment, a portion is drawn out by siphons from the standard soleras. The amount which may be drawn out with safety, and the kind of younger wines which are to replace it in the old solera, requires great skill and experience, and, I may say, a natural aptness for the business. The end in view is to draw off from a standard solera such a number of gallons, that, being replaced by an equal number of gallons of the younger wines, the standard of the solera may remain intact. If too much is drawn out, or if it is replaced from the wrong feeders, the standard may be injured, or even destroyed. But if the proper number of gallons are drawn out and replaced by the right sorts from the other casks, the old solera soon transmutes the younger wines to its standard, the bodega retains its reputation, and the owner grows rich.” He quotes Mr. Davis, of Jerez, as follows: “The age of the first step of a solera scale depends entirely upon the character and price of the oldest grade of that particular solera. For instance, the first group of wine in a scale of six, ending in a medium priced sherry, might be two years old; whereas, the first group of wine to permeate through a scale of, say four, ending in a wine of great age or value, would, perhaps, require to be fifteen or twenty years old. In proportion to the number of the scale behind the final solera, so is the frequency with which the wine can be drawn determined. In a scale of twelve, the final solera might be drawn, perhaps, every two months. In a scale of three feeders, perhaps twice a year.”

Blending for Shipment.—In the cellar a book is kept in which is recorded the blend of each shipment made, the history of the shipment, and all the facts necessary to its identification, and a sample bottle of every shipment is also preserved. When an order is received for a quantity of wine of the same kind as a former shipment, reference is made to the blend book, and recourse is had to the sample bottle, due allowance being made for the bottle flavor acquired by the sample, and the blend is prepared accordingly, the necessary quantity being taken from each solera, of which there are many in a shipping bodega, and allowance is also made for the change that may have occurred in the solera by replenishing. It is needless to add that only experience and natural aptitude fit a man for this delicate operation.

If the order is by a sample whose blend is not known, the sample is brought into the tasting office, and the blend glass brought into requisition. It is a graduated glass tube, with forty markings, corresponding to the number of jarras, or jars, which a butt contains, all shipments being by the butt. The shipping butt contains 130 gallons, and the cask for storing is about 20 gallons larger.

The cellar-man dips out and puts into the graduated glass amounts corresponding to the number of jars to be taken from each solera, sweet wine being added for sweetness, and color wine for color. As the sugar added in the sweet wine would excite fermentation, sufficient aguardiente, spirit, must be added to bring its alcoholic strength up to at least 18 per cent.

The right blend having been ascertained, it is left for a while, and tasted once or twice to make sure that it is correct. If it does not match the sample, a little of this and that solera is added till it exactly corresponds. The blend is then entered in the blend book, which gives the number of butts required, and the amount to be taken from each solera. The book is then handed in to the bodega for the execution of the blend. Supposing it to be a ten-butt shipment, ten butts are brought into the cellar, having been most carefully examined and rinsed out with spirit. If ten jars are required from a solera of fifty butts, two jars would be drawn from each of the fifty butts of the solera, and put into the ten butts, and so on from each solera; whatever the number of butts in a solera, an equal quantity of wine is drawn from each cask.

The following samples of blends are given by Verdad:

ORDINARY PALE SHERRY.
Pale soleras, 20  jarras
Fino soleras,16  “
Vino dulce,3  “
Aguardiente,1  “
40  jarras
ORDINARY GOLDEN SHERRY.
Pale soleras,22  jarras
Oloroso soleras,8½“
Vino de color,2  “
Vino dulce,6  “
Aguardiente,1½“
40  jarras
ORDINARY BROWN SHERRY.
Pale soleras,23  jarras
Oloroso,4  “
Vino de color,5  “
Vino dulce,6  “
Aguardiente,2  “
40  jarras

Fining.—After the blend is complete, the wine is fined with the whites of eggs and fuller’s earth, a kind of earth found at Lebrija, near Jerez, and called Tierra de Lebrija. For a butt of wine, a handful of this earth is made into a paste with the whites of ten eggs. The paste is thrown into the cask, and the wine is stirred in the usual manner. (See [Fining].)

CHAPTER XV.
DEFECTS AND DISEASES.

These are Divided by Boireau into two classes: 1. Those defects due to the nature of the soil, to fertilizers employed, to bad processes in wine making, and to the abundance of common, poor varieties of grapes. It is evident that defects of this class may exist in the wines from the moment when they leave the fermenting vat, or the press, and they are as follows: earthy flavor, greenness, roughness, bitterness, flavor of the stems, acidity, want of alcohol, lack of color, dull, bluish, leaden color, flavor of the lees, and tendency to putrid decomposition. 2. Those vices which wines acquire after fermentation, and of which the greater part are due to want of care, or uncleanness of the casks, and they are: flatness, flowers, acidity (pricked wine), cask flavor, mouldiness, bad flavors communicated by the accidental introduction of foreign soluble matters, ropiness, bitterness, acrity, flavor of fermentation, degeneracy, and putrid fermentation.

General Considerations.—Before entering on the subject of the correction and cure of defects and diseases, it is proper to say, that whatever be the nature of the malady or defect, especially if the bad taste is very pronounced, wine once hurt, however completely cured of the disease, will never be worth as much as a wine of the same nature which has always had the correct flavor.

It is, therefore, wiser and more prudent, says our author, to seek to prevent the maladies of wines, than to wait for them to become diseased in order to cure them.

Of course, the wine maker should use every endeavor to remedy the natural defects of his wines. And as for the wine merchant and the consumer, they should reject all vitiated wines, unless they can be used immediately, for they lose quality instead of gaining by keeping.

Moreover, when a wine has a very pronounced defect, it can rarely be used alone, either because deficient in spirit or in color, or because the vice cannot be entirely destroyed.

It would also be a mistake to suppose that the flavor of a diseased wine would be rendered inappreciable by mixing and distributing it throughout a large number of casks of sound wine; oftener the latter would be more or less injured by the operation. The defect of such a wine should first be removed by treating it by itself, and then it should be mixed only with the commonest wine in the cellar.

Each defect and disease will be treated under its proper name, the cause indicated, with the means to be employed to prevent, diminish, or to remove it.

The doses in all cases, unless otherwise indicated, are according to Mr. Boireau, who gives what is required to treat 225 litres, but we have increased the dose to what is necessary for 100 gallons of wine in each case.

Any one can first try the experiment on a gallon or less by taking a proportional amount of the substances indicated, leaving the sample corked, in a cool place, for at least two days in ordinary cases, or for eight days in case the wine is fined.