Factors Affecting Wine While It Is In A Barrel

If you go back into the dark and deep corners of history - in the 15th and 16th century - the wine was being made in small unauthorized stills, hidden from the common man.

Historically speaking, the use of barrels is quite recent, seemingly dating back to the post-prohibition era.

So, next time you see a board saying “wine barrels for sale” don’t get dragged to the stone ages.

Several processes take place during aging and besides the casks, the surrounding environment plays an important role in the ultimate flavours acquired by the wine. Aging an alcoholic product like wine is dependent on three important elements:

• Time
• Aging container
• Few essential chemical reactions between the liquid, air and container

These three elements influence the character of the wine and give it a distinct flavour. Besides these, there are many more factors that alter the taste of the wine in the barrel.

• Weather Changes:

Weather changes throughout the year, and it causes the expansion and contraction of wood. Spirit flavours exhale, and the natural aromas are drawn into the cask. Some of these surrounding characteristics include piny, heather and salty aromas from the sea air.

• Oak Grains and Their Influence:

Tight grain is aromatic as flavours are released from the vessels which carry the sap known to be rich in minerals, nutrients, and sugars. Since tight grain has high porosity, it allows the wine to have more interaction with the wood during aging. Wine aging barrels are constructed using oak planks or staves, and the type of wood grain of these planks will, therefore, influence the color, aroma, and taste of the wine during aging.

• Seasoning:

Seasoning is the process of naturally drying the raw wood in open air for 18 to 60 months. Open air seasoning reduces the moisture in the wood, softens the bitter tannins, while also removing some of the less desirable components like sap, mellowing the oak in the process. As tannins soften with seasoning they also add a smoother feel to the wine during aging.

• Toasting The Barrel And Its Influence:

Toasting helps to caramelize the sugars from the hemicellulose in the wood, releases vanillins from lignin, softens the harsher tannins in the wood, and also changes the barrel flavours to more spicy and toasty vanilla notes. Toasting can vary from a light toast to a heavy toast which also changes the strength of the flavour and aroma compounds imparted during aging. Essentially, the heavier the toast, the stronger the barrel flavours.

The above are the most obvious and moderate contributing factors to the chemical process that the wine undergoes while resting in a used barrel. The quality of an aged spirit is dependent on so many circumstances. Controlling these as best as possible is just a part of what makes a good wine.

Rocky Mountain Barrel Company offers old wine barrels for sale online. Connect with us now to see a wide range of used wine barrels.