Nov 20 2009
What for they use barrels?
Practically once in five years or so the bottle of the most well known drinks in the world changes. If you need examples then compare first bottles of Coca-Cola or Fanta with bottles they use nowadays for them. But only storage capacity for wine didn’t change through all these years.
Because such drink as wine doesn’t need something to promote it or pay attention of the audience to it, it’s becoming more noble and outstanding only with ages of storing. So let’s discover what is the main element which can provide it?
With age the taste of wine changes, it happens because of the process of fermentation that wine barrel provides. The use of wood wine barrel as a storage capacity is argued by the light wood flavor it can give to this magic drink. So of cause wine producers sometimes use barrels from steel or cement but in that case they risk not adding extra flavor to the wine. Wood barrels are made from oak, this material is a little poriferous and that’s why it gives to the wine the amount of oxygen it needs. But oak wine barrels differ and the flavors they can add difference too.
If you use oak barrels then you should expect that wine flavor after them can be a bit spicy, vanilla or a little toasty or even buttery. To control the flavor you need a balance of it, so if you feel only the oak flavor in wine then you should know that this wine is already over-oaked.
For choosing the right barrel for your type of wine we have two main advices.
So, our first advice you should remember that there are different types of oak and you should know them, if you want to control the flavor of wine. There are two main countries that produce wine barrels – among them you can find France and United States. If you hear about barrels from Alliere, Nevers, Limousin or Vosges be sure these barrels were made in France. And if you face with barrels produced in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio or Tennessee you should know that these barrels were made in United States.
You can hear many theories about the influence of different types of oak on various kinds of wine. Somebody believe that oak from Europe add more strong sweet taste to the wine than the oak from United States, other believe that Limousin oak add the strongest wood taste among other oak types.
The size of barrels is measured in gallons and you can see small wine barrels for 15 or 20 gallons, middle ones for 30 or 40 gallons and really large ones for 55 or even 60 gallons. So, our second advice is to remember that the smaller the barrel the larger the impact of wood on it. And if you use small barrels you can add wood flavor to the wine in the less amount of time, but it can’t guarantee that the full fermentation process will end at that time. Traditionally, practically all wine producers use barrels for 60 gallons which can provide the best balance between wood and wine not too much, but you can feel it.
