Let's not waste time with my torrent of words. As many of you know a true solera has the following characteristics...
1. Barrels are arranged in levels. Although some very old wine soleras may have as many as nine levels, a more typical solera for rum would be three to four levels at the most.
2. The reason is simple: the solera is typically tapped but once a year, with only a portion, say half a barrel, from the lowest level. Thus around 9/10th's of solera lies in reserve above the bottom level. Put another way, a solera requires at least nine years of production in reserves. hus, you won't see any craft distillers using this method.
3. Once the annual portion is removed, the part of the bottom barrel is replenished from the barrel above, which is replenished from the next level up and so on. New make is used to replenish the top barrel. Very labor intensive. Worse yet is the risk that the solera may become contaminated, or suffer a bad batch or barrel. This threatens nine years of production reserves. Errors simply can't be corrected in any practical way, so they are scrupulously avoided. Which brings up...
4. Another huge misunderstanding is age. Many soleras quote an age, which really should indicate the oldest rum in the solera blend, which is actually the age of the solera. Unfortunately, no distiller really does that. For example consider Z-23 or Matusalem 15. That is only true after the first bottling, as the next year the solera is now 16, then 17, then 18 years old as time passes. It's not like the distillers start a new solera - a huge and costly venture - each year. To the contrary, the solera just gets older. The next year Matusalem 15 should accurately be called Matusale 16.
The other big misunderstanding is average age. Many drinkers think that Zacapa 23 is 23 years old. Nope, though perhaps a teaspoon of 23 year old rum is in the bottle. Statistically, it is very hard to increase the average age of a solera rum much beyond 7 years old. While the average age increase asymptotically - the opposite of exponential.
This is why the Matusalem 18 - for which they charge a pretty penny - has an average age that may increase only another month or two. It's not worth the money - in truth, it's probably from the same solera.
A picture is worth...
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Pictured above is a solera at Oliver & Oliver (who does not distill their own rums). This arrangement is done for convenience of both storage and replenishing the levels.
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Another view, this time showing the space between each set of barrels - this provides access, again for ease of replenishing the levels.
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And finally the replenishing about to take place. Let's hope these hoses are of alcohol impervious quality!
Yet another amazing and enlightening post...
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(Credit: The Rumulier)
For a more complete discussion of the methodology, be sure to read the "Solera - Demystified" thread:
http://rumproject.com/rumforum//viewtopic.php?t=188
