Sunday, 10 April, 2016
Michael Olivier Communications
Today the Monis Pale Dry, Medium Cream and Full Cream wines are known as Traditional Flor Method Wines. Sherry is a registered geographic indicator for the wines from the three districts in Jerez de la Frontera, southern Spain.
As with most wines, there are points of importance during the making process. Dirkie Christowitz, the Monis Cellarmaster and Sherwin van Wyk need fine grapes to start off the process. The finest Chenin Blanc grapes are grown for these products in Stellenbosch. Taking into consideration that the wine spends 6 years in oak barrels, the grapes need to be packed with flavour.
Once taken into the Cellar, the base wine is made and then taken to the Criadera or Nursery where barrels are partially filled and inoculated with the flor yeast, a major part of sherry’s flavour. The flor yeast grows like a fluffy white blanket over the surface of the wine and lets down candle like tendrils into the wine adding its magical flavours. Three years the wine stays in the barrel after which it is taken to the Solera. The Solera is a tier of anything from three to five barrels high. Here the wine matures for a further three years. Each year, wine is drawn from the bottom layer for bottling. Each layer is then filled up from the barrels above it and the new wine from the Criadera is racked into the top row. For this reason Sherry never has a vintage.
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