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Sherry is made in a unique
way using the solera system, which blends fractional
shares of young wine from oak barrels with older,
more mature wines. Sherry has no vintage date because
it is blended from a variety of years. Rare, old
sherries can contain wine that dates back 25 to
50 years or more, the date the solera was begun.
If a bottle has a date on it, it probably refers
to the date the company was founded.
Most sherries begin with the Palomino grape,
which enjoys a generally mild climate in and around
the triad of towns known as the "Sherry Triangle"
and grows in white, limestone and clay soils that
look like beach sand. The Pedro Ximenez type of
sweet sherry comes from the Pedro Ximenez grape.
Sherry is a "fortified" wine, which
means that distilled, neutral spirits are used
to fortify the sherry. The added liquor means
that the final sherry will be 16 to 20 percent
alcohol (higher than table wines) and that it
will have a longer shelf life than table wines. |
