How To Use Oak Wine Barrels

Oak barrels have been used in winemaking to enhance the flavors and aromas of wine for more than 2,000 years. The natural phenols and tannins in oak react more beneficently with wine than many other wood varieties. Using oak wine barrels is, however, more complex than just storing wine in the barrel. Several precautions and pretreatments are necessary to ready your barrel for use.

Things You'll Need

• Oak barrel
• Bung
• Clean water
• Barolkleen
• 1 tbsp. sodium metabisulfite
• Bottles
• Siphon hose

Instructions

1. Choose a barrel with an appropriate "toast" level for your wine. Coopers will toast the inside of a wine barrel to modify the flavor-enhancing properties. The lighter the toast, the more oak overtones will be imparted. Heavier toasting causes a paler color and reduces some flavor notes like coconut.

2. Tighten your barrel and check for leaks. Place the barrel outside or inside in a space with a floor drain. Fill the barrel with clean, cold water and place the bung into the bung-hole. Any leaks in the barrel should be apparent the following day. Fill the barrel back up if leaks are present to allow more water to be absorbed, expanding the wood and sealing the leak.

3. Drain the barrel of all water and refill half-full with hot water. For every gallon of barrel volume, add ½ cup of Barolkleen (to remove excess tannins) and mix by tilting the barrel and sloshing the water about. Fill the barrel to the top with hot water and insert the bung. Let the barrel sit for 48 hours, turning the barrel a half turn every 12 hours.

4. Drain all water from the barrel and fill half-way with hot water. Measure one tablespoon of sodium metabisulfite for each gallon of capacity and add to the water as a sanitizer. Mix the barrel by tilting the barrel back and forth and then add hot water until it is full. Let the water barrel soak for 24 hours, half-turning it every six hours. Empty out the barrel and rinse out with cold water three times, before filling with cold water one last time to sit overnight.

5. Empty out the barrel and siphon the wine into it. Close up the barrel and let it sit in a cool dry place for two to three weeks. Open the barrel and test the wine for oak notes like smokiness and spiciness, as well as vanilla, mocha and toffee flavors. If the taste is to your liking, bottle the wine with the siphon hose; otherwise, close the barrel back up and allow the wine to sit for another week.

Tips & Warnings

• Oak chips are used in many vintners to impart oak flavors without the trouble of using barrels. A quarter pound of chips will flavor five gallons of wine.

• Oak flavoring declines each time the barrel is reused. After five years, it is essentially taste neutral.

References

• Leeners.com
• Cellarnotes.net

Resources

• Crafty-owl.com