I have seen these oak barrels for sale on ebay. I would like to use
them to store multiple bottles of asti champagne. I wanted to find out
from someone who knows more about champagne than I do whether this
will work. I am concerned the barrel will affect the taste and/or not
allow the champagne to be stored for a long period. (couple of months)

Thanks.

You mean empty the bottles into the barrel? Or make the wine in the
barrel? Or use the barrel to just store full bottles? Sorry, it's not
clear. For the first two you'll lose pretty much all the CO2 and end
up with a still wine. The third one is fine because the oak barrel
won't have any effect but then why bother?

For reference, Asti is fermented in a tank and the yeast is removed
before all the sugar is consumed. The wine is then filtered for
clarity and bottled, all done under pressure to keep the CO2 in. The
result is a sweet, low alcohol sparkilng wine, with intensely fruity
aroma because of the grape variety used (Muscat) and short contact
with yeast lees.

Pp

On Feb 19, 9:30 pm, wrote:
> I have seen these oak barrels for sale on ebay. I would like to use
> them to store multiple bottles of asti champagne. I wanted to find out
> from someone who knows more about champagne than I do whether this
> will work. I am concerned the barrel will affect the taste and/or not
> allow the champagne to be stored for a long period. (couple of months)
>
> Thanks.

Yes, Empty the bottles into the barrel. So the barrel will not be
capable of holding CO2? Even if I cork the barrel?

On Feb 20, 10:35 am, "pp" > wrote:
> You mean empty the bottles into the barrel? Or make the wine in the
> barrel? Or use the barrel to just store full bottles? Sorry, it's not
> clear. For the first two you'll lose pretty much all the CO2 and end
> up with a still wine. The third one is fine because the oak barrel
> won't have any effect but then why bother?
>
> For reference, Asti is fermented in a tank and the yeast is removed
> before all the sugar is consumed. The wine is then filtered for
> clarity and bottled, all done under pressure to keep the CO2 in. The
> result is a sweet, low alcohol sparkilng wine, with intensely fruity
> aroma because of the grape variety used (Muscat) and short contact
> with yeast lees.
>
> Pp
>
> On Feb 19, 9:30 pm, wrote:
>
>
>
> > I have seen these oak barrels for sale on ebay. I would like to use
> > them to store multiple bottles of asti champagne. I wanted to find out
> > from someone who knows more about champagne than I do whether this
> > will work. I am concerned the barrel will affect the taste and/or not
> > allow the champagne to be stored for a long period. (couple of months)
>
> > Thanks.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

On Feb 20, 10:18 pm, wrote:
> Yes, Empty the bottles into the barrel. So the barrel will not be
> capable of holding CO2? Even if I cork the barrel?


No. You'll lose much of the C02 as you transfer the wine. What is left
will
seep out through pores in the barrel fairly quickly.

Greg G.

On Feb 21, 9:17 am, wrote:
> On Feb 20, 10:18 pm, wrote:
>
> > Yes, Empty the bottles into the barrel. So the barrel will not be
> > capable of holding CO2? Even if I cork the barrel?
>
> No. You'll lose much of the C02 as you transfer the wine. What is left
> will
> seep out through pores in the barrel fairly quickly.
>
> Greg G.

ok, I have never ever considered doing this before. How hard is it to
make your own champaign? Do they sell kits that can be used with
barrels?

On Feb 21, 11:17 am, wrote:
> On Feb 20, 10:18 pm, wrote:
>
> > Yes, Empty the bottles into the barrel. So the barrel will not be
> > capable of holding CO2? Even if I cork the barrel?
>
> No. You'll lose much of the C02 as you transfer the wine. What is left
> will
> seep out through pores in the barrel fairly quickly.
>
> Greg G.

At best it might end up pettilant with more of a fizz than foam; don't
know how you could drink a barrel full either. (I'm not being
sarcastic, you can't keep wine in a partially full barrel, once you
start emptying it you have to empty it completely.) The barrel is
designed to hold pressure out, not in. An old beer barrel might work
but those are lined with pitch and you would lose most of the pressure
transferring it. Beer barrels were much heavier than wine barrels.

Joe

wrote:
> I have seen these oak barrels for sale on ebay. I would like to use
> them to store multiple bottles of asti champagne. I wanted to find out
> from someone who knows more about champagne than I do whether this
> will work. I am concerned the barrel will affect the taste and/or not
> allow the champagne to be stored for a long period. (couple of months)
>
> Thanks.
>
Why on earth would you want to store Asti Spumante in barrels? There is
n't a single commercial sparkling wine including champagne that is
stored in a barrel. Champagne incidentally - as with Cava from Spain -
and no doubt several other sparkling wines (but certainly not Asti - as
far as I am aware) is initially fermented in a barrel and later
transferred to a bottle where it undergos a second fermentation, which
gives the fizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Put sparkling wine back into the barrel
and you lose the fizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

These newsgroups really do give an insight to another world, don't they?

World'sWorst