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THE SOLERA METHOD AND MISREACHED DECARRINGS (PART I)

An aging method for mathematicians explained in a thousand different ways, but which in the end always leads us to formulate the same thought: "if only we had studied algebra and geometry a little more in high school...".  Algebra and geometry can help but let's try not to abuse them too much.

The question is that there are different ways of approaching this refinement technique whose variables in play make the mere wording 'Solera' meaningless. An example will serve as a basis for us to make some considerations in this regard: let's take a battery of barrels aged for 3 years, a battery of barrels aged for 2 years, a battery of barrels aged for 1 year and the freshly distilled brandy. We bottle a certain quantity of the battery aged for 3 years and we will fill it with part of the distillate from the battery aged for 2 years, which will remain empty and will be filled by the distillate present in the battery aged for 1 year, the latter will finally be filled with the freshly distilled brandy. The cycle will be repeated with the next bottling.

This is the basic framework of the technique, but the variables involved determine the quality of the process. First of all, we need to evaluate the levels of aging, which in the example are only 3, but could be 10 or even more. A greater number of levels, and therefore decanting, will guarantee the bottling of a distillate with a longer average aging time. Another data to know is the number of barrels of the longest aging battery ('Solera') in relation to the number of barrels of all the other batteries ('1aBreeder, 2aCriadera, etc.). Let's take an example: we have 3 levels with a pyramidal pattern where the Solera battery has 4 barrels, the 1staCriadera has 3 barrels, the 2aCriadera has two barrels. If we empty 50% of the Solera battery for bottling, this can be filled again with an emptying of 66% of the 1aCriadera, as there are only 3 barrels that must fill the 4 of the Solera battery. In turn the 2aCriadera will have to be emptied 100% to fill the 1aCompletely breeding.

However, the pyramidal trend could also be reversed or we could have an equal number of barrels for each battery and then in this case we will have that all the levels are emptied by 50% and in subsequent bottlings there will remain a percentage of more distillate with greater ageing. The quantity bottled will also be decisive, for example, if instead of 50% you decide to bottle 30% the system will evolve over the years towards a longer average aging time.

It should not be forgotten that this technique has the function of standardizing production for several years in order to always have uniform aging, which can also be done with simple blending of which Solera represents a particular application. Sometimes, however, it happens that the demand for the product, due to the perverse mechanisms of marketing, undergoes surges and then companies find themselves forced to have to speed up their Solera without this being made evident on the label. This phenomenon has discredited the method which, if well calibrated by sizing the batteries based on bottling needs, can give excellent results.

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