I purchased a new 30gal french oak barrel in Dec. When I filled it
with water, it sealed very quickly and only leaked around a couple
quarts before entirely sealing. I topped it off and left it for 2
weeks, then conditioned and sterilized it with a sodium
bisulfite/citric solution. All this happened in my garage which is
~55-60F. I had no problems with any leaking from the barrel, which was
in sharp contrast with the new american oak barrel I replaced it with
(under warranty from my local wine-making supply shop).

As I do not have good temperature control in the garage, I moved the
barrel into a quiet spot in my house and filled it with my merlot.
Aside from slightly overfilling to the bottom of the bung, I have had
no trouble with drips. Now that I have red wine in the barrel, I can
clearly see where it is seeping between the staves. No real problems
however, except at the very end of the barrel where I am seeing a small
seeping occurring between a few stave-ends. It is mostly just
moistening the end of the barrel staves and has only dripped 5ml or
so. This only happened a week or so after transferring the wine.

My question is whether this is an unexpected breaking in of the barrel?
It had been sealed tight with water at 10F cooler temp. Thanks in
advance.

Cheers.
-Greg