page_title: Solera
section_title: Aging
hierarchical_section_title: Solera / Aging
caption_attribution_description: Spanish fortified desert wine made from the Pedro Ximenez grape in a solera.
context_page_description: Solera is a process for aging liquids such as wine, beer, vinegar, and brandy, by fractional blending in such a way that the finished product is a mixture of ages, with the average age gradually increasing as the process continues over many years. The purpose of this labor-intensive process is the maintenance of a reliable style and quality of the beverage over time. Solera means "on the ground" in Spanish, and it refers to the lower level of the set of barrels or other containers used in the process; the liquid is traditionally transferred from barrel to barrel, top to bottom, the oldest mixtures being in the barrel right "on the ground", although the containers in today's process are not necessarily stacked physically in the way that this implies but merely carefully labeled. Products which are often solera aged include Sherry, Madeira, Lillet, Port wine, Marsala, Mavrodafni, Muscat, and Muscadelle wines; Balsamic, Commandaria, some Vins doux naturels, and Sherry vinegars; Brandy de Jerez; beer; rums; and whiskies. Since the origin of this process is out of the Iberian peninsula, most of the traditional terminology is in Spanish and Portuguese.
context_section_description: The age of product from the first bottling is the number of containers times the aging interval. As the solera matures, the average age of product 
  asymptotically approaches one plus the number of scales (excluding the top scale) (K) divided by the fraction of a scale transferred or bottled (α), or (1 + K/α).
  For instance, suppose the solera consists of three barrels of wine, and half of each barrel is transferred once a year.  At the end of the third year (and each subsequent year), half the third barrel is bottled. This first bottling is aged three years. The third barrel is then refilled with by transferring half of the wine from the second barrel.  The wine transferred from the second barrel has an average age of 2.5 years (at the end of year 2, after barrel transfers, it was half 2-year old wine, half 1-year old wine, for an average age of 1.5 years; at the end of year 3, before barrel transfers, it will have aged another year for an average age of 2.5 years).  The second bottling will then be half 3.5 years old and half four years old (the wine left in the last barrel at the previous cycle), for an average age of 3.75 years. The third bottling will be an average age of 4.25 years (one half wine that was left over from the second bottling - average age 4.75 years, and one half wine transferred from the second barrel after the second bottling - average age 3.75 years).  After 20 years, the output of the solera would be a mix of wine from 3 to 20 years old, averaging very slightly under five years. The average age asymptotically converges on five years as the solera continues.
caption: A Pedro Ximénez Sherry whose wine label indicates that the wine was aged in a solera that has purportedly been in operation since 1827
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