After 11 months in stainless steel tanks, our first vintage of merlot
is heading into french oak on the weekend. During sampling, yesterday,
it still seemed to me that the wine was overly tannic (although my wife
doesn't agree!). Before ferment, this vintage was cold-soaked for
about 2 days, and we then extended maceration until the cap sank. Not
having the best grapes, our product today is a bit thin, and as
mentioned tannic - but readily drinkable.

Two questions:

(1) I'm planning for a 10 to 12 month bulk storage in a new french oak
(225L) barrel. Will I see an appreciable softening in the tannic
structure of the wine over this period?

(2) I've heard a lot about soft and hard tannins recently, with the
hard or 'harsher' tannins being contributed by the seed of the grape.
To reduce the hard tannin content of the wine, a strategy I recently
read about suggested racking the must at some point during ferment, but
before extended maceration. The goal of this racking is to remove the
seeds from the bottom of the tank and thus eliminate the extraction of
hard tannins. Has anyone got experience in this domain as an amateur
or commercial winemaker?

Best regards,
Darin