Many people would say a barrel’s a barrel! But that is not true. Yes, barrels enjoy different shapes and sizes, but the whisky, wine and distillate industries are far more interested in the condition and smell of the inside of the barrel!

During the aging process, all wines leave their mark on the inside of the oak barrel as the barrels are gradually impregnated with the wine. The different wine flavours leave their distinctive mark on the inside of the barrel and these flavours will go onto enrich the barrel’s next occupant. This is very important for the new owner of each barrel.

Sherry and port wines are classic examples. Many people think the only difference between them is sherry is drunk before a meal and port at the end. However, there is so much more to both wines. These wines are so similar and yet so different.

Port and sherry have various similarities: they are both exclusively produced in their own regions. They are both fortified wines as brandy or a neutral distilled spirit is added to both wines to increase their alcohol content and helps them age better. They spend time aging in wooden barrels. When the bottles are purchased, both wines should be stored in a cool place, stored in the fridge after opening and drunk within a few days.

Regarding the differences, for a start, port is produced in Portugal and sherry in Spain. So near and yet so far! Geography, grape type, weather conditions and production methods all play their part.

Port is produced from mainly six types of red grapes (Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cão and Tinta Amarela) in the Upper Douro region of Northern Portugal which is the most mountainous wine region in the world. The vines endure harsh conditions as the summers are hot and dry with very cold winters. However, these conditions produce amazing grapes. On the other hand, sherry is produced solely from three types of white grapes – Palomino Fino, Pedro Ximenez and Moscatel grapes though 90% of all sherry is made from the Palomino grape. The vineyards are planted on limestone soil much lower down on the plains in the “Sherry Triangle”, an area in the province of Cadiz in southwest Spain, very close to the Atlantic Ocean. Here the summers are slightly hotter than in Douro but the winters are comparatively mild.

All port grapes are treated in the same way at the beginning of the port making process. Due to the steep and mountainous region, all the port grape varieties are stilled picked by hand as the ancient terraces are too narrow for tractors. The grapes are then crushed in granite lagars either mechanically or still by foot treading. The grape juice is then transferred into fermentation tanks to ferment until it can be transferred into barrels.

Sherry grapes tend to still be picked by hand but the harvest is becoming increasingly mechanised. The harvested grapes are immediately crushed in a reception hopper to extract the juice (the must). The Pedro Ximénez and Muscat varieties for sweet sherry are spread out to fully dry in the hot sun and turn into raisins and then crushed. The must is then taken to the extraction system to extract even more juice. The juice is then filtered and cleaned and then transferred to stainless steel fermentation tanks. However, some vineyards still use the traditional system of fermentation in oak casks.

Both wines are fortified but with a difference. Port is fortified halfway through the fermentation process resulting in a richer, sweeter and heavier texture while sherry is fortified at the end of the fermentation process and therefore has a drier texture.

The different fermentation processes result in different alcohol contents: port has a higher alcohol content of 19.5-22% compared to sherry’s 11-12%. Port is mainly sweeter than sherry though the port produced from white grapes tends to be drier. Sherry on the other hand ranges from dry to very sweet.

Oak barrels are used to mature the three main types of port, Tawney, Ruby and Vintage port and sherry. The main difference is that the port barrels are always 100% full whilst sherry barrels are only 2/3 full. There is a good reason for this – it creates a surface area on which the flor (from the yeast) can develop. During sherry fermentation, yeast cells form a flora, called Flor, which covers the wine and prevents oxidation. However, when the alcohol strength reaches 17% or more, the yeast cells die and the sherry then comes into direct contact with the air. The wine in tanks is then put into barrels, allowing the wine to mature and darken.

The beauty of port maturing in the barrel is that they can do so for years, depending on the type, creating distinctive flavours. Vintage port is only aged for 2 years in the barrel and then bottled as it is meant to age between 10-50 years in the bottle. Ruby port is younger than Tawney as it only ages for a few years in the barrel resulting in a sweeter and more of a fruity, berry flavour unlike Tawney which can be aged for up to 40 years in the barrel and has more of a nutty, caramel flavour. Once bottled, Tawney and Ruby ports are meant to be drunk immediately.

Sherry is solely aged in mostly American oak barrels called ‘botas’ in the solera system which involves continually blending the wine. The barrels are placed in different groups, each group containing wine of the same age. The oldest scale, also called solera, at the bottom, holds the wine ready to be bottled. The amount of wine to be bottled is extracted from the solera and is replaced with the same amount from the slightly younger wine above, which is replaced with wine from the row above. The barrels in the highest row are filled from the latest harvest. This process happens several times a year. The result is no one knows the age of a wine aged in a solera as it is blended, but the quality of the wine is maintained. Sherry is aged in the barrels from a minimum of two years to more than 20 or 30 years. The barrels are kept in Bodegas which are special buildings built to facilitate the circulation of the breezes coming in from the Atlantic and control the sunlight entering.

Depending on the grape type and how long the sherry matures in the barrel, the barrel is left with different flavours. Most sherry has fresh aromas of almond with dried fruit and salt, but there are so many varieties.

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