Barrel and Port Questions

[Longtrain]

I have been making wine for over 3 years and have many successes, but have limited to my experience kits and some Country wines. I will be starting two juice pails soon, a Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc. I plan to MLF the Syrah. My question concerns buying a barrel for a MM LaBodega port, which I have made w/o a barrel. Can I toss that Port directly into a new barrel or should I do another red kit into the barrel first? The Syrah having gone through MLF won't be a good choice. Once the Port is in the barrel, how long can it remain?

 

[novalou]

I have been making wine for over 3 years and have many successes, but have limited to my experience kits and some Country wines. I will be starting two juice pails soon, a Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc. I plan to MLF the Syrah. My question concerns buying a barrel for a MM LaBodega port, which I have made w/o a barrel. Can I toss that Port directly into a new barrel or should I do another red kit into the barrel first? The Syrah having gone through MLF won't be a good choice. Once the Port is in the barrel, how long can it remain?

The smaller the barrel, the shorter the oaking time. If you want longer barrel time for more micro oxidation, breaking it in with another wine is a plan.

Once you introduce MLF into a barrel, it will also inoculate other batches as well, something to consider.

 

[ibglowin]

I would run a break in batch through the barrel before hand. Leave it in for 4 weeks. Then run the port WINE through the barrel for up to 12 weeks. Notice I said wine. Don't add the F-Pack until you remove the wine from the barrel and then rack back to bucket big enough to hold the port, brandy and F-Pack. Also you do realize that the La Bodega Port is a 3 gallon kit so you will need to do a double batch in order to fill a 23L barrel.

I did this several years ago and it turned out amazing.