Barrels and how they are made

The ancient Romans were the first to make wooden barrels to store wine; their predecessors used fired clay vessels. A barrel is essentially a container made of curved staves held together by hoops, in which the wine takes on secondary aromas and matures and rounds out through micro-oxidation. Barrels are typically made of oak (they can also be made of mulberry, chestnut and acacia, among others), and can come in many sizes. The size affects the maturing of the wine and the later composition of its aromas.

“Classic” wine barrels have a capacity of 50–100 litres. Large ászok barrels can hold 1,000–5,000 litres. Because it is so widespread, the barrique also deserves a mention: its speciality is that its 225-litre staves are charred on the inside, which allows gentle, oxidation-based treatment and maturing of the wine and gives it distinctive aromas from the wood. In a Hungarian context, we should also mention the gönci barrel, whose capacity in the old Hungarian unit is 160 icce, or about 136 litres. Its chief distinguishing feature is that it was formerly used to mature the famous Tokaji Aszú and Szamorodni wines.

It also matters what kind of oak the barrel is made from, because with barrel ageing the wine's fruity, grapey (primary) notes are enriched with sweet-spice and other (secondary) aromas from the wooden barrel. In general we can say that French oak gives vanilla notes to the wine, American oak dark chocolate and coconut, while Hungarian Zemplén oak, for example, gives roasted-nut notes.

How a barrique barrel is made:

The material of a wine barrel must be impeccable, otherwise the wine suffers for it. Before first use it has to be prepared with several rinses of hot water. Barrique barrels, as I mentioned, have a charred inner surface, from which characteristic scent and flavour compounds dissolve into the wine. To preserve this, barrique barrels are prepared with a cold-water rinse only.

Even when empty, a barrel needs constant care. It must be washed out with cold water, then the water must be poured out completely. Repeat until clean water runs out of it. After the first racking (that is, wine storage) 3–4 rinses are needed, later about 2–3. Leave the washed barrel to dry for 2–3 days. After it has dried, sulphur it and keep it stoppered. If the sulphuring is left out, the barrel starts to go mouldy. The sulphuring process is recommended every two months, because sulphur dioxide slowly escapes from the barrel. Care, including sulphuring and wiping, must be done regularly. Where possible, a barrel in which wine is stored should always be filled to the brim. This is important partly because a special bung (akonadugó) is placed in the bung-hole of the barrel, with its end reaching into the wine for a perfect seal. And partly because if a wine is “half full”, it is in contact with the air over a large surface and ages rapidly. Nowadays the akona bung is also being replaced with a silicone bung, which reduces the wine's uptake of air.

How long a wine spends in a wooden barrel depends on the style the winemaker has dreamed up for that wine. It is true that logistics often simply determines when a wine is bottled. Professional opinions differ on how long barrels remain usable. What is certain is that a new barrel gives the wine such a strong woody flavour that at the first filling only must or wine of below-average quality is typically used, to take away the intense aroma. As the number of fillings increases, the strength of the woody notes in the wine resting in the barrel decreases. Because some winemakers imagine a strong woody flavour in the style of their wines, they can part with their barrels quickly, even after the second or third filling. Others keep them until the barrel falls apart. Not least, barrels are extremely expensive, and can cost several hundred thousand forints.

Source: Dávid Polák, sommelier, expert at Palack Borbár.

Barrel sizes

Source: boroshordo.com