After reading Northern Winers and others comments on barrel ageing a while back I have decided to get an Oak Barrel in an attempt to further improve my fresh grape and frozen grape wines.
I've learnt quite a lot about acid and balance and have been pleasantly surprised how good my Grapefest 2011 wines are turning out and I've done some oaking of different styles in both glass and plastic but feel it is now time to try something more adventurous.
I had a chat with Alastair Simms, the Master Cooper at Wadworths brewery in Devizes and settled on a 20 litre French Oak barrel medium toasted. This will be made to order so it will not be ready until March/April time. I chose 20 litres so that I can use it on a 23 litre kit if required and have sufficient wine left over for topping up.
The plan is to put a couple of kits in it to break it in as I believe being a small barrel the wine will oak quite quickly to start with and then start on my Grapefest wines.
Any comments/advice will be very much appreciated.
Rob
I've learnt quite a lot about acid and balance and have been pleasantly surprised how good my Grapefest 2011 wines are turning out and I've done some oaking of different styles in both glass and plastic but feel it is now time to try something more adventurous.
I had a chat with Alastair Simms, the Master Cooper at Wadworths brewery in Devizes and settled on a 20 litre French Oak barrel medium toasted. This will be made to order so it will not be ready until March/April time. I chose 20 litres so that I can use it on a 23 litre kit if required and have sufficient wine left over for topping up.
The plan is to put a couple of kits in it to break it in as I believe being a small barrel the wine will oak quite quickly to start with and then start on my Grapefest wines.
Any comments/advice will be very much appreciated.
Rob
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