Stumbled onto these barrels while searching Ebay. Any ideas how the toast would affect the wine? Wonder if the barrel came untoasted -- would that be make the barrel a good place to age wine?
Ive found that these barrels have a medium, medium + toast and impart oak very quickly. I wouldn't go smaller than 20L as they are prone to over oaking and leaks...
Yeah... small barrels are strong. You need to be carefull not to over oak. But after a few batches they will tone down. I have been happy with the barrels I got from Vadai.
I've been quite pleased with my Vadai Hungarian oak barrel. It has a wonderful 'toasty clove' aroma to it (medium toast). It's also 6 gallons, which is means less extra glassware needs compared to the 5-gallon French oak medium toast barrel that I was my first purchase. The French oak barrel was also around $200 base cost and the Vadai 6-gallon was somewhere south of $150 delivered. The staves of the Vadai barrel are thicker than the staves of the French oak barrel and it's obvious. You can call up and talk directly to Sandor, too. I recommend the product.