Tempranillo以外

每逢提起西斑牙葡萄酒往往都離不開Rioja的Tempranillo等紅、白酒，而然西班牙盛產其他葡萄酒如Sherry，今期便為大家介紹較少人知的葡萄佳釀。有275年歷史的Bodegas Alvear乃Andalucia區最古老的釀酒廠。傳至第八代的Alvear，他們善於採用Pedro Ximenez葡萄釀造Sherry雪梨酒，以名為Criaderas及Solera，一個源於西班牙南部的方法釀酒。

Whenever someone mentions Spanish wines they don’t really go far from Tempranillo from Rioja, which is a shame since Sherry is so unique for Spain, including some of the the world’s best wineries, with Bodegas Alvear being one of them. Throughout its 275 years, Alvear is the oldest winery in Andalucia and one of the oldest in Spain, stretching through eight generations. Using Pedro Ximenez grapes, Alvear adopts the Criaderas and Solera system, unique and originated in the south of Spain.

簡單說就是將木桶層層疊排放，最上層的是剛挑選的新酒，越往下便越是陳年老酒，最底層便是稱為Solera的成品酒，每年把部分最底層的酒灌裝出售後，便會把上一層的酒灌注加滿往下層再陳年，然後再用第三層的酒灌滿第二層的酒桶，如此由下而上，以新酒加入舊一點的酒中再陳年，因此Solera的酒釀是集合多個年份的酒而成，可以有超過50年的酒在裡面。這樣的方式不但令葡萄酒更為複雜，而且亦能保持出品穩定。

Simply put the oak caskets are piled on top of each other starting from the first one on the ground, every year, part of the oldest wine on the bottom called solera, which is actually blend of different vintages, is bottled, and wine from the second row is used to filled up the bottom, where newer wines from the third row is used to fill up the second row, until the top level where new wines are being filled from the harvest. This gives the solera wine very good complexity and making the wine a staple commodity throughout Spain.