What is produced in a Solera?
Solera by the producers of sherry. In a Spanish sherry "solera", the vintner may transfer about a third of each barrel a year. A solera sherry has to be at least three years old when bottled. A quite similar process is called sostrera, used to produce fortified wines in the Mediterranean regions of France. In Sicily, where Marsala wine is made, the system is called "in perpetuum". Solera vinification is used in the making of Mavrodafni ("Black Laurel"), a fortified red dessert wine made in the Northern Peloponnese in Greece. Exceptional "Mavrodafni" vintages are released every 20 or 30 years: they
Solera very large capital investment for a winemaker. If done with actual barrels, the producer may have several "soleras" running in parallel. For a small producer, a "solera" may be the largest capital investment, and a valuable asset to be passed down to descendants. An economic concomitant of the Andalusian wine industry are Almacenistas ('warehousers', small or larger investors who purchase solera-produced material and carefully maintain it over many years so that it can be purchased for current needs by bodegas who are actively blending for the market. Wine produced from a solera cannot formally have a vintage date because it