The Solera System & Copper Caution: Wine Wizard

QA few years ago I toured some wineries on a trip through Michigan and found one that was quite unique. One of the methods of this winery was called “solera.” This method involved saving a specific amount of wine from the first year of production, then, in the second year, saving a similar amount, and blending the two together. Half of this wine is bottled and the other half is saved for the next year’s batch, continuing on in each successive year. This way, each year’s batch contains some wine from not only the first year of production but each subsequent year as well. Have you ever heard of this method before and can you tell me something else about it? Should I be doing something else? I’m trying it this year with a batch of wine I made last year from my own grapes. Dave Vollmer Eldorado, Wisconsin AThe solera system of wine aging was developed by the Spanish and Portuguese as a way to provide wines of a constant average age, as well as to ensure a certain