The Wine Press and the Cellar: A Manual for the Wine-Maker and the Cellar-Man

by Emmet H. Rixford

Mature Wines.—When the wines have assumed their distinctive characters—and this requires from three to five, or even more, years—they are used to replenish the soleras. In the shippers’ bodega are kept many soleras, each containing a given number of butts. A solera, whether classed as fino, oloroso, or otherwise, has its distinctive quality required in the preparation of a wine for shipment. It has been reared and nursed for years with careful attention; each butt has been tasted from time to time, and any cask in which a material deterioration has been detected is rejected from the solera, and probably fortified with spirits, or distilled.

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.