Vadai Barrels schedule

[sdelli]

Talked to Vadai tonight about barrel schedules. They re enforced my thinking on how long to run the wine in their barrels. Personally I like the taste of a barrel in wine and they told me even with a brand new barrel..... Leave it in for months..... Not weeks! Their trees will have a hard time over oaking wine. I was on a starting schedule of 4 weeks for the first run and 8 weeks on the second....... May have to leave it a little and do more tasting!

 

[tonyt]

I am doing a 4/8/12 week schedule. And my experience with my first Vidal barrel is that you (I) can over oak in a small Vidal barrel. Keep in mind that oak is subjective. Taste weekly and pull when you say its enough or just past enough.

 

[Boatboy24]

My first barrel spent 5 weeks with the first batch (I had sulfited water in it for 6 days prior to that) and it gave a pretty good amount of oak, but it did fall back some. Second was 8 weeks and my third will be just over 12 when it comes out next week. I agree with Tony - taste along the way and pull it when it's just a little too much oak. Worst case, you can always put it back in if the oak falls back too much for you.

Keep in mind that if you are talking about a larger barrel, you could easily have the first wine in it for months. A 5 or 6 gallon barrel will not give you that much time on the first batch.

 

[Pumpkinman]

The wine I've have in brand new 20 ltr Vadai barrels for 5 weeks can easily go another month, the 23 liter barrel was the same, the first wine was in it just under 2 months.
I think the schedule is great to give you a general idea if when to really start monitoring the wine and oak level, but definitely taste it and adjust the amount of time in the barrel to your taste and the variety of wine.

 

[nucjd]

Pumpkin. Keep us up to date. I just got my 23 liter hungarian ( median toast) barrel today from Vadai and will start using it shortly when I harvest my chardonnay this late summer and do a primary ferment in it to start things off. I am curious to watch how your schedule changes.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Nucjd, Absolutely, I would definitely taste the wine to determine your prefered level of oak, but be sure to follow what the more experienced folks like Ibglowin and others suggest, Mike has put me on the right path more than once.

 

[sdelli]

Kinda thinking the same.... My 23 liter went 24 days on round one... But thinking I jumped the gun by about 2 more weeks.... Luckily it was a Pinot Noir so that is better a little softer. Yes..... Taste.... Taste.... Taste.

 

[ibglowin]

I really like the 4-8-12-16 break in schedule for most wines. You can always rotate one back in if the oak level fades a bit which can happen after about 6 months or so.

 

[nucjd]

ibglowin. Question about the barrels. Once out to the 16 week schedule what do you end up doing on long term storage using a barrel of this size? ie. would you push it out 5 or 6 months or is 16 weeks your max? Thanks

 

[Pumpkinman]

nucjd, sorry to answer a question directed at Mike, from what I was told, you don't want to keep them in a small barrel for more than 4 months, 4 months in a small barrel is equivalent to a year in one of the large barrels.
I'm sure someone will explain it better.

 

[ibglowin]

Your free SO2 will drop like a rock in 3 months time. You will be essentially down to ~5 ppm so you will need to top way back up. I am now out to 6 months with my wines made from fresh grapes in my 23L barrels. They are soft and rounded when they come out. I just watch the SO2 levels.

 

[nucjd]

Thanks both for the answers Pump and ib. I appreciate it. I am just getting a little antsy with my first chardonnay vintage try in a barrel .

 

[Boatboy24]

Does anyone ever add sulfite while barrel aging? Seems it wouldn't be too dificult to thief out some wine, dissolve some Meta in it, and pour it back into the barrel. Of course, this would be after validating you need sulfite by measuring.

 

[ibglowin]

Yes, just like topping off in a carboy.

 

[Pumpkinman]

I test and add sulfite to my barrels as necessary.

 

[Boatboy24]

In theory, that makes perfect sense. But does it not prevent the micro-oxidation that we want to get from our barrels?