Barrels: Wood and Wine - Alcholic Beverages, Jun 4 2008 Barrels: Wood and Wine - Alcholic Beverages
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Barrels - Wood & Wine
......Oak barrels have been used for centuries to age and store wine. The first use of oak barrels was not to add flavor but simply a convenient way to transport wine. Oak is a tight-grained wood that is nonporous. The shape of the barrel also makes it a strong container that is easily rolled either empty or full. Being nonporous also helps to impart more flavor to the wine and so it was not long...
The oak used to make barrels come from several countries in Europe such as France, Slovenia, Hungry, and from the United States. However, the primary oak used for wine barrels comes from France or North America. American oak tends to be less costly than French oak as the cut of the grain produces less waste; not because it is an inferior wood.
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... empty and 600 lbs when full of wine. There are approximately 300 bottles of wine in a barrel. It is up to the winemaker to determine which characteristics are best suited for his/her grapes. Most barrels are made into either a Bordeaux style barrel that holds 59 gallons or a Burgundy style that holds 60 gallons. The inside of the barrel is charred or toasted during construction. The amount of...
Although barrels can last up to 100 years, their flavor life is about 5 years. After that, the oak flavors they impart diminish. However, shaving the inside of the barrel and then recharring it will help to lengthen its usefulness. As well, winemakers will blend wines from newer and older barrels to achieve the perfect marriage of oak and wine.
...... •General Wine & Spirits Articles• •Appellations• •Asian Lady Beetle• •Barrels, Wood and Wine• •Barrel Fermentation and Barrel Aging• •Biodynamic Wine• •Bottles for Wine• •Bottle Stoppers: Cork or Plastic• •Chardonnay• •Corks - Put a Cork in It• •Corkage Fees Uncorked• •Decanting Wines• •Deciphering Wine Labels• •Essential Guide...
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Barrel Fermentation and Barrel Aging - Food Reference Beverage Facts, Jun 4 2008  They are: Limousine, Troncais, Nevers, Allier, Jupille. The first two impart an overwhelming vanilla flavour to wines and are mostly used by cognac manufacturers. White wines may be fermented in barrels to extract tannins in an attempt to render the end product cellar worthy. Most white wine is not meant to benefit from barrel fermentation and/or aging.
The difference is cost and results. American oak barrels cost approximately
Rebuilt barrels are never use by winemakers who care about quality.
Two enterprising Canadians scientist have recently started marketing Ontario oak barrels harvested from forests around Brantford. The wood is hand-split and shipped to the USA for construction. These barrels are now used by Lailey Winery regularly, and many others on an experimental basis. So far, results are encouraging.
It is less expensive than French barrels, but more than American products due to transportation costs.
North Italian winemakers use mostly upright Slovenian oak vats with 9000 – 10,000 litre capacity. Sometimes chestnuts barrels are used.
Modern winemakers use French, mostly Allier, oak barrels with laudable results.
German winemakers like to preserve fruitiness and shy away from barrel aging in most instances. If they do use barrels, they are huge, some are 60,000 in capacity and made of extra-hard German oak which is so tight as to hermetically block air from entering.
Ontario oak has a god future only, if costs can be reduces by assembling barrels here, which in turn depends on volume. I hope that wineries collectively will decide to use Ontario oak barrels thus facilitating the opening of a barrel manufacturing in the country. The number of wineries in Ontario and British Columbia are sufficient for a small facility to be profitable.
...... •General Wine & Spirits Articles• •Appellations• •Asian Lady Beetle• •Barrels, Wood and Wine• •Barrel Fermentation and Barrel Aging• •Biodynamic Wine• •Bottles for Wine• •Bottle Stoppers: Cork or Plastic• •Chardonnay• •Corks - Put a Cork in It• •Corkage Fees Uncorked• •Decanting Wines• •Deciphering Wine Labels• •Essential Guide to...
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Traditional Balsamic Vinegar - Aceito Balsamico Tradizionale - Food Reference, Food Facts, Jun 4 2008  In olden days many families hid their barrels in attics to protect them from thieves and envious competitors. Some families still use barrel sets which were first used more than a century ago, and a few families own and use aging barrels first use in the 18th century.
Following this procedure, the liquid is poured into the first barrel of a set of barrels, which has to have been used quality vinegar for at least one year.
Traditional balsamic vinegar must be aged a minimum of 12 years in a set of barrels. The smallest and the by law required set consists of three progressively smaller barrels (oak, chestnut, mulberry, cherry, ash and juniper are recommended and almost always used by producers who respect tradition).
After one year, the young vinegar is decanted into the second largest barrel. All other barrels in the set are topped up starting from the smallest and last with the next up, and the last receives the fresh must.
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Cognac - The Sophistacated Brandy - Food Reference Beverage Facts, Jun 4 2008 ... separately, the “ heart “ goes into barrels, and the tail is run into the collected “ head “ to be redistilled. Cognac is distilled out at 70 per cent alcohol strength and aged in barrels made of aged Troncais or Limousin oak. Both impart different flavours to the end product and producers decide on their style based on wood preference. R. Martin uses Limousin oak, whereas...
Cognac barrels hold 500 litres and are stored in warehouses interspersed throughout Charente Maritime, since to date no insurance company has ventured into insuring a huge Cognac warehouse. The risk is too high from evaporating alcohol, which can easily spark an infernal fire that would burn intensely and for weeks.
... 25 years Cognac is transferred into demi-johns called bonbons, and used only to flavour young Cognac blends. Hennessy’s Paradis (Paradise) warehouse contains Cognacs from 17th century still in barrels, which when tasted, revealed that after 25 years the prod...
... The blender decides which barrel(s) to employ in a particular blend. Once the blend has been decided, all barrels are retrieved and emptied into upright casks fitted with wooden paddles. Once all the barrels have been emptied, the paddles are activated to ensure an even blending. After this the mass is aged for another year to “marry“. Prior to bottling caramelized sugar ( up to 2 per...
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Bourbon Guide at Epicurious.com, Jun 3 2008 ... 51 percent corn, produced in the United States, and distilled to no more than 160 proof, with nothing other than water added to the mixture (aside from yeast). It must also be aged in new, charred-oak barrels, among other require...
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... that a distillery used fewer barrels to make...
Maker's Mark draws on about 19 barrels for each batch. Some bottlings such as Noah's Mill or Kentucky Vintage label their bottlings with batch numbers and the dates that the bottling occurred. In this case, the batch number is an in-house number assigned to each dumped batch of whiskey to designate it from another set of barrels that may be dumped, mingled, and bottled at another time.
......Unlike "small-batch," the phrase "single-barrel" has real meaning. A single-barrel bottling is made from one barrel and bottled without mingling the bourbon with any other barrels. Single-barrel bottlings can be different from barrel to barrel, as each barrel offers different flavors depending on where it was stored in the warehouse and a variety of other characteristics, such as age and...
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Beverage Alcohol Report - BAR Vol 2.75 July - Aug, 2005, Jun 4 2008 ... creates a system for blending. The new wine is put into the top barrels. Every six months, or other timed cycle, wine is moved from top barrels to the next level down. Only half of the very bottom barrels are bottled and sold. This means that every bottle has potentially the same quantities...
......Oloroso - Oloroso sherries are stronger in alcohol than finos and do not develop the flor. They are deep orange- red, mahogany hue as during fermentation the barrels are exposed to air that oxides the wine. Nuts and grapes dominate the bouquet of an oloroso. Most Olorosos are sweetened before bottling with Pedro Ximénez, or are used as the base wine in the even sweeter Cream sherries. These....
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Hillebrand Winery's Trius Line - Food Reference Beverage Facts, Jun 4 2008 Since the winery owns substantial acreage on the shores of Lake Ontario and has many first-rate grapes growers under long-term contact, the selection of the best barrels is possible and judiciously followed.
... policy, set aside the best barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot which may be as many as 500, pending on vintage, (just as an interesting side observation the winery buys 1400 now barrels a year, and retires approximately 1000 by selling them to landscape companies and specialized stores catering to home gardeners); of those set aside the best are selected for the blend. The.....
All Chardonnays were vinted from the Lakeshore vineyard fruit, barrel-fermented, aged on their lees for one year in French cooperage (90 percent) and 10 percent in American oak barrels and stirred monthly to extract maximum flavour. Full malolactic fermentation initiated for a buttery smooth and rich texture.
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Brandy Producing Countries - Food Reference Beverage Facts, Jun 4 2008 ... also mix it with water to enjoy as an aperitif or even in cocktails/ Armagnac differs from Cognac in the grape varieties used, teroir and distilling techniques. Also, Armagnac is aged in Ga...
Villa Zari, a small Tuscan distiller uses Trebbiano grapes grown on Chianti Hills Only free run juice wine is used for extra finesse. After an initial nine month, small new oak aging, the brandy is transferred to even smaller but older barrels to avoid excessive tannin absorption.
Yerevan Brandy Factory markets its products under the Ararat brand available in three, five, eight, 12, and 18 year old, all of which are aged in oak barrels of Krasnoyarsk oak. The young ( three to five year old, ) brandies tend to be somewhat rough on the edges, but those eight, 12 and 18 year old exude fine apricot and vanilla aromas much appreciated by connoisseurs and others alike.
Germain Robin uses Charantais alembics (a tulip shaped still with a swan neck, hand-made from thick copper) for a rare Pinot Noir brandy using 12 different grape brandies, and X O aged in Limousine oak barrels. Both are of outstanding quality, clarity, smoothness and fragrance.
American brandy producers prefer Limousin oak barrels for aging although Rupf, owner of St George Distillery swears by Nevers oak from Burgundy and believes his Chardonnay brandy to taste as good, if not better, than nay in Cognac and/or Armagnac.
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Toasting Tequila at Epicurious.com, Jun 3 2008 Aged for six months in oak barrels, this añejo has a surprisingly grassy nose that gives way to flavors of tobacco and smoke, with a sweet, smooth finish.
A mix of several tequilas of different ages—up to five years old—its deep hue and almost Scotch-like flintiness speak to long aging in Cognac barrels.
Reposado: Translated as "rested," this tequila ages in wood barrels for at least two months and up to a year, which rounds out the blanco's edges, making for a smoother sip with an oaky backbone of flavor.
......Añejo: Or "aged" tequila. The spirit sits in wood barrels for at least a year, often more, acquiring a deep, smoky resonance that's instantly recognizable to whiskey drinkers. In 2006, Mexico's Tequila Regulatory Council distinguished a new subset called Extra-Añejos for tequilas that have aged for three years or more. These take on an almost peaty, caramelized flavor reminiscent of fine...
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Chardonnay - Food Reference Wine Facts, Jun 4 2008 It can be vinified in a number of ways and styles – cold fermentation, oak aging, no-oak or aging, sweet, extremely dry, off-dry, full-and medium bodied, sparkling, fermented in barrels and aged in barrels.
...... •General Wine & Spirits Articles• •Appellations• •Asian Lady Beetle• •Barrels, Wood and Wine• •Barrel Fermentation and Barrel Aging• •Biodynamic Wine• •Bottles for Wine• •Bottle Stoppers: Cork or Plastic• •Chardonnay• •Corks - Put a Cork in It• •Corkage Fees Uncorked• •Decanting Wines• •Deciphering Wine Labels• •Essential Guide to...
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Rum - Expressions of Sunshine - Food Reference Beverage Information, Jun 4 2008 ... which they ar...
......Pot stills yield rums with more congeners (character), and Coffey stills lighter spirits. They age their rums in second hand Kentucky bourbon barrels for as long as 23 years. Barbados Mount Gay and Cockspur grace the counters of fine bars, and cupboards of connoisseurs. Foursquare Rum Distillers, founded in 1926, ages part of its rums in second hand sherry casks for an additional taste...
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Armenian Brandy - Excellence in Distillation - Food Reference Beverage Facts, Jun 4 2008  After fermentation the wine is double distilled in Charantais-style stills. Each batch is separated into three parts: “head”; “heart” and “tail”. Both head and tail are collected separately and re-distilled. The heart is aged in new Krasnodar oak barrels for nine months and then transferred to old barrels.
Krasnodar oak barrels are made from 70 – 100 year old trees, which have been hand split and seasoned prior to making the barrel.
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Beverage Alcohol Report - Vol 1.6 October - 2004, Jun 4 2008 ... is the red ve...
... take a good whiff. Savor the aromas before you actually take a drink. This is referred to as the bouquet or nose. That is, the odors found in wine that result from things other than the grapes; the oak barrels or the changes in the grapes due to oxygenation and general aging. Concentrate on both the primary and the secondary aromas. The primary scents are easy to find in young wines and are...
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Beverage Alcohol Report - BAR Vol 2.6 June 2005, Jun 4 2008 ... Reposada or R...
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Montilla - Moriles - Food Reference Beverage Facts, Jun 4 2008  The biggest vinification difference between the Montilla and sherry is the initial fermentation occurring in clay jars measuring 250 – 1600 litres clay jars. Some wineries still use tinajas for both fermentation and aging. It is proven that clay jars keep liquids cooler than stainless steel and/or wooden barrels.
They were used in antiquity to allow cool air to circulate around the earthenware, which evaporates and keeps the contents cool. After the initial fermentation the wines are classified, transferred to American white oak barrels and enter specific soleras for finos, amontillado, olorosos and cream.
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