Barrel Questions

[oaksfan]

I'm really interested in getting a 23 litre vadai barrel and on the website they claim they can be up to 10% larger. has anyone had one be that much bigger ?Would make for a lot of topping wine.

Also do you normally bottle right after racking from barrel or go back to carboy ? Thanks

 

[David219]

My Vadai barrel holds just a tad over 29 bottles worth of wine, so just under 6 gallons. I know this because I usually bottle straight from the barrel. Sometimes I rack to a carboy, but then I need another couple bottles to top up the carboy because the barrel volume is slightly lower. If the barrel volume is greater than six gallons, you will need topping wine for the barrel (or some other method, like marbles).

One important consideration is that you need to have a number of kits on hand to run through the barrel. The first few kits will really soak up the oak. My first kit I ran through the barrel only made it 3-4 weeks before it was really oaked. It's been bottled 15 months and it is still pretty oak heavy.

I've had my barrel since October 2013, and it is currently holding its 7th kit. So 7 kits in 16 months. This kit (CC Red Mountain Cab) has been in there for two months. The schedule for the first few kits went something like 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 weeks...you don't want to leave the barrel empty, unless you want to mess with a bunch of sanitation and rehydration issues. So you need to have a few kits ready to go, or already bulk aging and ready to go, immediately into the barrel when the current barreled kit needs to be racked out.

I think you'll find you will have a lot of your own wine to top up with very soon. You may even have it already. If you do, it's kind of a bonus...more wine gets to rest in the barrel!

If you don't have a way to test for free SO2, consider investing in something to do so. The SO2 levels will drop fairly fast in a barrel.

Good luck!

 

[Boatboy24]

Good advice from David and I agree. I have two 23 liter barrels and they are both pretty spot on the capacity. If you're going from the barrel into an Italian glass carboy, you'll be a little short, as those carboys run large. I have 1 6 gallon Better Bottle and racking from a barrel into that is almost a perfect match every time. I usually rack from the barrel to the carboy and taste. From there, I make final adjustments like adding finishing tannin and/or more oak (one barrel is neutral and the other is very close). I'll usually have the wine in that final carboy for about a month.

 

[oaksfan]

Thanks Jim and David for the advice ,keeping the barrel occupied wont be a problem I currently have 5 reds in carboys aging. If wine gets over oaked does it fall back in the bottle equally as it would in a carboy ?

Any recommendations on what order I should run them thru the barrel ? here's what I have in carboys EP Super Tuscan, EP Amarone ,CC Carmenere, Passport Petit Verdot ,Passport Brunello. Thanks again !

 

[Boatboy24]

Order isn't too important, but I'd go with the bigger, bolder wines first. Probably start with the Amarone, then the PV or Super Tuscan, then Brunello, then Carm. By the time you're on the 3rd or 4th batch, you can leave the wine in for 3 months, and that seems to be the sweet spot on barrel aging kits. So, schedule would look like this:

Batch 1: 3-5 weeks
Batch 2: 6-8 weeks
Batch 3: 8-10 weeks
Batch 4: 10-12 weeks

This schedule is just a suggestion. You should taste every week or two and remove the wine when you've gone just past where you want it. The oak will fall back in the carboy or the bottles. It may be beneficial to leave the first couple wines in the carboy for a few months to see how far back the oak falls. You can always rotate it back through to get more oak and/or microoxidation/concentration.