The Solera System of Aging Wine: 5 Steps in the Solera Method

The solera system is primarily a sherry wine-aging system that allows manufacturers to deliver consistently aged wine by staggering out the aging process in different barrels. Certain manufacturers have applied its principles to balsamic vinegar, Champagne, dessert wines, and fortified wines—pairings of wine and spirits—like fino sherry, manzanilla, and oloroso.

To use this fractional blending system, winemakers drain wine from the oldest barrel—called the solera—and refill it with wine from the next oldest, called the first criadera. The third oldest barrel is the second criadera, and so on. As criaderas accrue over the years, the bottom solera vat or barrel ends up consistently aged around the same year as one barrel trickles down to the next.

This biological aging process for wine began in Spain—more specifically, in Jerez de la Frontera and Sanlúcar de Barrameda in the Andalusia region. Nineteenth-century winemakers realized they could stagger their aging process to avoid having to wait to age and bottle individual añadas (or vintage wines). Using Pedro Ximenez and Palomino wine grapes, they began to make Spanish sherry wine varietals like Amontillado and Palo Cortado. The practice spread to Madeira in Portugal, throughout Europe, and then the rest of the world shortly thereafter.

The solera method offers much to winemakers. Here are just three benefits to consider:

1. 1. Consistent taste: Since winemakers use the same vineyards for each phase of the solera process, they can obtain a far more consistent taste than they would if they had to start fresh each year. This way, solera-made wine can attain the same acidity, aroma, or sherry notes, such as toffee or berry, year after year.
2. 2. Increased accessibility: With the solera system, winemakers can manufacture a far more consistent amount of wine. This increases accessibility to consumers. Some solera system practitioners possess a veritable factory’s worth of wine barrels to steadily churn out wine of the same age each year.
3. 3. Steady flow of wine: Those who use the solera system might do so to be sure they will have the same amount of wine to sell every single year. Additionally, the average age of the wine will also be the same. This makes for a predictable supply and, as a result, a very stable business model.

These five steps make up the original sherry solera aging process:

1. 1. Add wine to the bottom barrel. You’ll need a base wine to begin the solera method. Set out one barrel or an entire bottom row of barrels to be your solera. Now add your initial batch of wine. Allow the wine to start fermenting and accrue its flor (a white film of yeast). Then expose it to oxidation if you wish. Age the wine as long as you see fit but a minimum of one year before you proceed with the solera system.
2. 2. Fill another barrel with wine. After you’ve facilitated fermentation, initiated the aging process, and addressed any oxidative needs for your initial batch of wine, wait at least one year to allow your bottom barrels of wine to age. Then you can add new wine to your next level of barrels. In other words, permit the bottom solera to age for a year on its own before you start aging your first criadera of wine.
3. 3. Remove wine from the bottom barrel. After maturation of the solera batch, remove a portion of your choosing from the old wine for bottling. Make sure the batch above has also aged at a slower rate. For example, if you’ve aged your bottom batch for two years, then you should have aged the batch on top for a single year.
4. 4. Replenish the bottom barrel. Take the young wine from the first criadera and replenish the bottom solera barrel with it. If the sherry in the bottom solera was two years old and the sherry in the first criadera was one year old, this means the bottom solera sherry now averages around one and a half years old. Make sure to also top off the first criadera with the sobretabla (or wine from your latest harvest).
5. 5. Replicate the process. As the years go on, keep adding new criaderas (or wine casks) so that a staggered aging system starts to work its magic. Eventually, as the youngest wine replaces older wine, the oldest wine will come to average out to the same age year after year. It will take a bit of mathematical ingenuity to figure out the specific target age you should use for each criadera to achieve this goal, but it can pay off in the long run.

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