Solera

Spanish term. A method of perpetually ageing wine in a “pyramid” of barrels. Wine for bottling drawn from the bottom layer. The barrels from this layer, are then topped from the next layer up, and so on until the top layer is reached. This layer is topped by fresh wine made that year. The barrels are typically left 5/6ths full. Each layer in a Solera is called a Criadera, or layers. Fino sherries will have 7 criadera, Manzanilla at least 9 and up to 20. Practically, wineries, simply place them in batches representing a criardera rather than building actual solera stacks. The image below shows the basics of how the system works.