Choosing a Barrel for Your Wine: Learn How Wine Is Made

Video Transcript

"You want to select an oak barrel; American oak is just as good as French oak. It’s about half the price. The old timers believed in using used barrels; they liked bourbon, whiskey barrels. One of the things that does it, it imparts more alcohol because these barrels were sitting with alcoholic beverage that has 80 proof. Well you know, that alcohol has to be in that barrel and they burn tartar and they toast the barrel. The barrel has what they call a toast inside to get more oak out. In a whiskey barrel, you get more oak and you get a little burnt flavor. Sometimes you almost think you had a port it because that alcohol that is in that barrel is there. So the barrel is important and a lot of people make wines with using glass, stainless steel. One of the things is a Chardonnay; is a Chardonnay if it’s made in oak. It’s Chablis if it’s made in steel. So this is something you have to realize, what do I want in my wine? You can take and you can get oak chips and put it in your 5 gallon carboy and give it an oak flavor that way. That is the way some people do it but you are going to be as particular, as easy going as you want to be. But to get a real good wine, use oak. That’s my recommendation, use oak and you’ll get a good wine. You’ll be happy with that."