The purpose of this system is to obtain homogeneous wines with a uniform taste. It is a dynamic system by the, so called, “corrimiento de escalas” or running up the scales with wines from different crops. In order to carry out this process, "criaderas" or breeding butts and “soleras” or yielding butts (butts at floor level holding wine ready to be drawn for bottling), are needed. Butts of each type are placed on top of each other in rows of no less than three in height. When wine is drawn or “rociado” from the "solera" butt, this in turn is refilled from the oldest "criadera" and so on following the scale with the rest of the "criaderas".
  
   

This refilling takes place by using two very important utensils called "canoa" and “rociador", which allow for a soft springkling of the wine into the butts in a dew like fashion to avoid disrupting the yeast veil or "flor". This is a slow and costly procedure but is deemed critical in guaranting the final quality of the Sherry wines

Sistema de Producción de Soleras y Criaderas