wrote:

On Sep 5, 8:54*am, gene
wrote:
wrote:

clipped



This has been an interesting thread and I
appreciate all the comments. Just to add my 2
liters worth here, I haven't tried the wines
from Virginia but have heard some nice
things. As for the winery that gets new
barrels every year, I don't understand why.
First of all the expense would be
considerable and there is a lot of aging left
in a wine barrel. If I am not mistaken, you
should be able to use a barrel for 5 years.
Then I would hope they re-sell it to the home
winemaker, like me who is glad to get a bit
more oak out of it. A new barrel each year
would greatly over oak the wine I would
think.

clipped

Salute!
Orlando

Are you sure you'll be extracting oak flavor
from an oak barrel after 5 years use? If I'm
not mistaken, they're generally considered to
be 'neutral' for oak extraction after the
fourth year (some even after the third year).

You'll still get micro-oxygenation and flavor
concentration (due to evaporation) after that,
so the barrel is still useful, but *I think
you'd have to add a new stave or three (i.e.
part of a "chain-of-oak" or equivalent) to get
noticeable oak flavor.

Gene

Gene -
I was not sure about using a barrel for 5 years,
so I appreciate your comment. While I personally
wouldn't attempt to add staves to a barrel, oak
probably should be added pehaps oak spirals
could be used. I don't have any experience with
them but I would imagine that they would enhance
the oak of an old barrel. Orlando

One winery in Northern Virginia has been using the
spirals in spent barrels with (IMHO) great
success.

I am using them in my amateur production also. I
screwed a stainless eye screw into the bottom of
silicon barrel bung and tie and hang spirals
using stainless wire from the bung. It is very
easy to extract this way and pull when necessary
without fishing for bags of chips in the bottom
of the barrel.