Wine

Barrels

Stacked oak barrels fill the barrel aging rooms of Napa Valley. (Photo courtesy of Wine Institute.)

Barrels are used to store and age wine. The wine is "topped up" (the barrel is filled to the top) so that no air remains in the barrel to cause oxygenation of the wine. However, the porous nature of wood does allow a certain "breathing" to occur, which provides a slight exchange of air into the barrel and wine out of the barrel. You'll notice a very pleasant smell of wine in a winery's barrel room, so it's very obvious that a barrel isn't 100% tight.

Barrelmakers gather the oak staves with metal hoops to create a barrel. (Photo courtesy of Napa Valley Vintners Association).

Barrels are usually made of oak, either French or American. The oak imparts a desirable taste to the wine, particularly in heavier red wines that will age in the barrel for some years. Oak barrels are usually "toasted" on the inside. The current cost of a 55- to 60-gallon oak barrel is around $300-$450 for American oak and $600-$750 for French oak.

An oak barrel can be used for 3-5 years. After that, the barrel is no longer able to impart much of an oak taste to the wine.

In order to enhance the oak taste and add a "caramelized" taste to some wines, most wineries have their barrels "toasted." This slight burning of the inner side of the staves will give the wine tastes of vanillin, caramel, butterscotch and other flavors.

Toasting barrels enhances the flavors of that wines that will be stored within them. (Photo courtesy of Wine Institute.)

The cooperage will place an unfinished barrel over a hot fire so that the inside of the barrel is slightly burned. Levels of toast include light, medium, medium plus (currently the most popular) and heavy.

Wineries will frequently use a combination of barrels so that, for example, 1/3 might be brand-new, 1/3 three years old, and another 1/3 five years old. This gives a range of flavors of various wines, and also allows for blending wines with various levels of oakiness.

In order to save on the cost of new barrels, some wineries will "shave" the inside of used barrels, removing about 1/4 inch of the wood, revealing fresh wood, which will then impart the oak taste to the next wine that is put into it. They will likely also re-toast the barrel. This shaving can only be done once as the wood staves then become too thin to shave a second time.

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