The History and Science of the Barrel- Lesson 11: Soleras, Single Barrels and Specialty Barrels

Lesson 11: Soleras, Single Barrels and Specialty Barrels

The Rum Is Aged, Now What?

Of all the aging and blending methods in the rum industry, Soleras are the least understood and hence the most misused. The term “Solera” refers to a method developed in Spain for the aging and blending of Sherry. The goal of a Solera system is to eliminate differences between barrels, as well as, within distillation batches. This process will ensure that the final product is as consistent as possible over many years. For more information about Soleras, please refer to Lesson 5 of “The Classifications of Rum,” available from The Rum University’s website (www.RumUniversity.com).

A true Solera has both a physical ordering of barrels (stacked in reverse chronological order, with the barrels containing the youngest spirits on top and the oldest on the bottom) and a blending method (via which aged product is taken out of the bottom barrels only, and then the barrels are refilled with the contents of those barrels above them). While it is true that the physical arrangement is not necessary in order to conduct the blending, any deviation from the standard process may result in a dilution of the authenticity of the Solera.

The main abuse of the Solera nomenclature in the rum industry comes from the fact that in true Soleras, the oldest barrels should not be completely emptied during bottling: one always leaves some of the old rum behind, to ensure its characteristics will be blended with those of the younger rums in future batches. In reality, however, most rum producers completely empty their barrels into mixing tanks and are happy to call the final blend a Solera.

The term “Single Barrel,” while not abused as much as the term “Solera” is still susceptible to misuse. In the truest sense of the expression, Single Barrel rums must come from individually-identified barrels, each bottle having on the label both a Bottle Number and a Barrel Number. As a result, veritable Single Barrel rums will have slight differences between barrels and between years, which increases their desirability and collectability. In reality, however, producers are so focused on consistency that they blend hundreds, even thousands of barrels together, to even out their differences, and then re-cask the resulting blend for weeks or months prior to bottling the resulting rum under the guise of a Single Barrel.

Specialty barrels are becoming more and more common in the rum industry, these include Port, Sherry, Cognac, Whisky and barrels previously used in the aging of other alcoholic beverages (fortified or not), including beer! In an increasingly-competitive world where every marketer is vying for consumer attention, this practice of using specialty barrels is allowing for veritable differentiators to emerge among producers. Only time will tell if the trend has legs or if it is transient.

Our special thanks to Independent Stave Company for their support in our research of oak.