What does tincture of wine in oak barrels give? Barrel and bottle aging of wine. Why oak

The process of making wine is an art. A certain skill is also necessary to preserve the taste of an exquisite noble drink. Over the years, winemakers have created their own aging recipes. Each time they realized that the most aromatic wine was the one in the wooden container. But how to store wine in barrels to get a drink with a rich and multifaceted taste? What type of wood is best to purchase a natural container from?

These questions have always worried more than one generation of wine masters. And novice winemakers would not mind finding out whether it is possible to store wine in oak barrels or is it enough to buy a product made from pine?

I would like to say with confidence that it is better to age wine in oak products. And the proof of this is its special properties. Let's take a closer look at the characteristics of this wood. Let's find out how to store wine in oak barrels and get divine drinks.

Special type of wood

Even the ancient Romans wanted to replace their clay amphorae with convenient containers in which wine could be transported without losing its taste. Various types of wood were tried. Ultimately, oak was preferred and became the main material ideal for storing and transporting wine.

For many thousands of years, oak barrels have not lost their relevance. Due to its special properties, oak is very popular in the manufacture of wine containers:

The softness of wood allows the material to be bent into the desired geometric shape.
Oak barrels require a minimum degree of firing, which affects the production time.
The dense texture of the wood suggests good water resistance.
Tannin powder is released from oak, which gives the wine a velvety delicate taste.

When choosing a barrel for storing wine, pay attention to the degree of its firing. During the heat treatment, a protective film is created between the wood and the wine. If you purchase a heavily burnt product, then in the noble drink you will feel less oaky tones, and more fried and spicy. Storing wine in a medium-firing barrel means having a wine product with a delicate vanilla flavor and sufficient tannin content. A slightly charred container produces juicier wines.

Thanks to the special structure of oak, the noble drink is enriched with oxygen through the pores of the wood. An oxidative process occurs, which helps improve taste. The clarity of the wine drink also increases. At the same time, alcohol and water evaporate, and tannins slowly saturate the wine.

We hope you have received a comprehensive answer to the question about storing wine in oak barrels. It is possible and necessary to age a noble drink in oak products. So, you bought a keg, what to do with it next?

Preparation for use

To get aromatic, aged wine, you need to be patient and perform the following operations on the barrel:

soaking;
scalding;
washing with soda;
rinsing with hot and cold water.

In order for the wood in the new product to swell and the gaps to be removed, it is necessary to fill the barrel with cold water. Usually 2-4 weeks are enough for the soaking process. It is recommended to change the water at least every other day. If you see a leak at this time, do not be alarmed, this is not a defect. Add water and observe. After the wood swells, all leaks will stop.

Next, drain the cold water, fill it with boiling water (not completely) and roll the barrel to scald its walls. Then mix soda ash in new hot water (about 200 g per 10 l) and rinse the wooden product again. This operation is carried out in order to extract excess oak aromatic components from the wood.

After cleaning the barrel with soda, you need to rinse it thoroughly with hot water. You can rinse thoroughly several times until you see a completely clear, clean liquid. To cool the wooden product, it is filled one last time with cold water. Having pulled out all the plugs and opened the tap, its remains are drained. Only after this can the natural container be filled with wine. This oak barrel is now a powerful weapon in the fight for new harmonious tastes.

Aging time

Depending on the type of wine, different periods of storage in wine cellars are established. For muscat varieties of the noble drink, aging periods of at least one and a half years are provided. The same time is needed for dry table wine. An aromatic product made from Kakheti and Rkatsiteli grape varieties is aged for about 2 years.

In this case, it is necessary to maintain a certain temperature in the basement. For white varieties, keep the temperature within 12 0 C, for red varieties - 14-16 0 C, dessert - 15-17 0 C. With clean and fresh air and a humidity of 85%, your wine will retain its taste, ripen and spill into a glass an aromatic bouquet of rich and multifaceted flavors.

When preparing drinks, every nuance is important: temperature, disinfection and proper preparation of the container. Otherwise, even a perfectly prepared drink can, when infused, turn into a low-grade one. What to do to avoid this and how to comply with all the conditions, even if it is very difficult in city apartments?

Temperature
Often, recipes for aging alcoholic beverages specify a temperature range that must be maintained. It usually has very small increments and is difficult to follow.

cognac, whiskey, and other strong alcohol - the ideal temperature is 16℃, in general the temperature range is 14-20℃;
table wine - at a temperature of - 8-10℃;
beer and dessert wine must be infused at a temperature of 10-14℃.

If the aging temperature is higher than the specified ranges, the loss of alcohol will be much greater due to increased evaporation. If the temperature is below the range, the aging process may stop and the drink will begin to age too quickly.

Place of aging

The best place for aging drinks: a dark and cool place in the pantry; barrels are best kept in a separate basement or cellar. In city apartments it is very difficult to comply with these conditions, but you can use this trick: treat the barrel mouths with wax - this will slow down the process of evaporation of the contents of the barrel. It is not worthwhile to completely treat the barrel with wax - this will deprive the conditions for chemical reactions and gas exchange.

Proper preparation of containers

You can read about preparing new barrels for use in the article “How to properly prepare an oak barrel.” You can prepare a barrel for subsequent use using the following technology:

The barrel is washed with cold water to remove sediment;
Next, it is washed with a hot solution of 2% soda ash. To prepare the solution, take 20 grams of soda per liter of water, respectively, 10 liters will require 200 grams. The solution is poured into the barrel to half its volume. It is important to use a ready-made soda solution for pouring, and not pour it inside the container. An oak barrel is washed by rolling or rocking;
After such washing, the barrel must be rinsed several times with hot water until the soda is completely washed out;
The barrel is then washed with cold water;
The barrel is dried, turned over with the filler hole down, and the hole for the tap is opened, if any;
Subsequently, the barrel is fumigated with sulfur and closed with a stopper. The barrel is then stored in a cool, damp place.

Preparation of drinks infused in oak barrels

Cognac

To prepare mash for cognac, take unwashed grapes on tassels, fold them and knead them in a large container.
The resulting mass is poured into an enamel tank, mixed, sugar is added, and left to ferment for 5-7 days. The mash is ready for the second stage of fermentation when the yeast precipitates and the pulp rises to the surface.

The liquid is again poured into clean jars, the pulp is squeezed out, and additional sugar is added. The jars are closed with lids with a water seal and placed in a warm place for 3-4 weeks. The fermented wort should not be sweet, and its strength should be 12-14%.

It must be distilled in a moonshine still to 30%, separating the heads and tails. The resulting alcohol is diluted with water in a 1:1 ratio, then a second distillation is carried out. To create a drink of higher quality, you can carry out a third distillation; the strength of the drink in this case will be 75-80%.

After distillation, spices and aromatic additives are added and the drink is poured into a barrel, the drink is infused for 4-6 months.

Whiskey

Single malt whiskey is made from malted barley. And it is prepared using the following technology:

Barley grain is taken, washed and debris removed. It is soaked in a special container for a day. After a day, the water is drained, the grain is thoroughly washed and laid out in a layer of 4-6 cm. In this case, it is necessary to provide special conditions: cover the top of the grain with gauze, moisten the grain several times a day until it begins to germinate, ensure the desired temperature of 20-25 ℃.

After 4-5 days, when the length of the grain itself becomes equal to the length of the sprouts, “green malt” is obtained, it must be used immediately, grinding in a meat grinder and pouring water, this will be wort. If the malt was germinated for storage, then it is dried at a temperature of 30-40℃ to a solid state, and immediately before use, such malt is ground.

The mash is made from malt with added sugar and yeast. After the wort has fermented, it must be distilled twice and poured into a barrel for aging. In a large barrel, the drink will be ready in a year, but if you decide to brew in a smaller barrel, the drink will be ready much faster, about 6 months.
Calvados

This drink is produced by distilling apple wine or cider in a moonshine still, followed by aging in oak barrels. The resulting cider is distilled twice on a moonshine still and poured into oak barrels to age for 8-12 months. After this, it is diluted with spring or artesian water.
up to 40%, and can be bottled.

Fermentation is the most important stage, which determines whether your wine will look like a cheap supermarket craft or become a masterpiece of taste, selling for tens of millions of dollars (though, of course, for this it will have to sit for several hundred years). Even if you have the perfect wort, you have removed all the pulp and have not overdone the sugar content of the product, everything can be decided at the fermentation stage. Therefore, it is worth focusing in more detail here. The site team is confident that real wine in current market conditions can only be obtained at home (on a farm, in a country house) - so listen and remember!

So you've made a good wort. Now you should place it in a container and let it ferment. An oak sudzin made from high-quality wood is best suited as a container - this is an excellent way to preserve the benefits, aroma and taste of grapes and any pickles. However, in Russia it is quite difficult to find it, so you can use any other oak barrel - preferably one in which wine has already been infused (under no circumstances take a cucumber barrel!). Then this container should be placed in a dark room with a constant temperature within 18-20 ° C. It is important that the temperature regime is observed unquestioningly: if the temperature is too low, the yeast will simply settle to the bottom, and if it rises above 20 ° C, the fermentation will be too vigorous.

In addition, during the fermentation process you need to carefully monitor the wort. If fermentation is still quite violent, then the precious liquid may simply splash out of the barrel! To prevent this from happening, you need a sudzin or a handmade oak font of high quality, which is not at all easy to find. And spilled foam is a whole problem: it can easily cause acetic sourness of your wine.
Then, when the danger has passed and vigorous fermentation gradually subsides, the barrel must be slowly replenished with the same wine (for example, from another barrel) so as not to leave empty space and, thus, not to give air access to your wine.

Some residents of the Northern capital believe that wine can ferment in a tueska - a wooden container vaguely reminiscent of a bucket. But, unfortunately, even the best St. Petersburg oak barrel will not give the same result as a tightly sealed barrel. In addition, it does not have a fermentation tongue, which is necessary in order to release the carbon dioxide that has accumulated inside the container during fermentation. A container is a wooden container created specifically for transporting and storing honey, and it is not suitable for wine, although it looks nice.

The fact that the fermentation process is complete can be determined by the characteristic sediment of dead yeast and the final clarification of the wine. You can keep the wine on the lees for no longer than 2-3 weeks. Periodically check the color and thickness of your precious liquid - and everything will be fine. In just a few days you will be able to taste a glass of the real drink of the gods.

Barrel aging of wine is used to improve the organoleptic properties of various types of wines. The changes and reactions that occur during wine storage in barrel depend on the length of the aging process. Wine that has been stored in oak barrels is usually not consumed immediately after production, but requires a longer period of time to fully develop.

Red wines are much more likely to be aged in oak than white wines. The result is top-class wines with a denser, silkier structure and complex aroma. During the aging process, the alcohol, water and organic acids of the wine extract various organic compounds from the wood: such as tannins, sugars and aromatic substances. Extraction proceeds most intensively during the first few weeks, and then the activity of the process slowly fades away. Typically, wine is aged in oak from several weeks to two years. Organoleptically, the tones of an aged wine are typically described as oaky, smoky, spicy, with hints of vanilla or coconut oil.

Barrels that are used for the first time produce wine with maximum extract of aromatic substances extracted from the oak. When a barrel is used, for example, for the third time, the amount of time required for aging is twice that of the first and second uses, since most of the substances have already been extracted from the oak. Whether the barrel is made from raw "green" oak or has been toasted greatly influences the taste of the aged wine. A toasted barrel adds a smokier flavor to the wine, a seasoned barrel adds an element of vanilla, and raw wood adds spice and mellows the wine. The aroma of oak tannins is different from grape tannins. Oak tannins make wines heavier with creamy tones in the bouquet.

For home winemaking conditions, it is easier to practice aging red wines in oak than white wines for the following reasons:

* In relatively small quantities produced by amateurs, it is much more difficult to control oxidation, and white wines are not forgiving in this case.

*Much of the white wine we produce is of a type that is unlikely to improve with prolonged aging and is likely to suffer from aging.

It is better to practice aging red wine. Here are some indications of what production conditions it is advisable to adhere to:

* The wine should have been infused on the pulp for 2 to 4 days

* To do this, you need to ferment it dry on the pulp.

* It should be heavily colored and may have a high tannin content.

* The wine may be neutral in aromatics

* Minimum holding volume is 5 liters. You can get better results with larger quantities.

The duration of the aging process depends on many factors such as: the conditions of the year and the region in which the grapes were harvested, the variety, wine production technology, and the expected style of the resulting wine.

The quality of the barrel in which the aging will be carried out is important: the origin of the oak, the volume, type and intensity of roasting.

On average, we can suggest the following terms for a new barrel: white wines 3-6 months (the aroma will change more significantly), red wines with a massive body 1-2 years.

We invite you to discuss these and other aspects of the excerpt on our forum, in the appropriate section.

Wine, like a living organism, has the same cycles - it is born, matures, grows stronger, and in the end dies. Like any other organism, this drink requires certain conditions in order to go through all the cycles of its life.

But the responsibility to test the most optimal conditions for the life of wine did not fall on our shoulders. Throughout history, winemakers have come up with many methods and tried many methods. To this day, the best alternative is to store wine in wooden barrels. Of course, the trends are such that more and more varieties of white wine are beginning to be stored in containers made of other materials (broom, concrete). But the highest quality wines, the price of which can exceed the cost of a car, without changing traditions, are stored in an oak barrel.

If you want to start making wine, or simply appreciate the taste of this drink of the Gods, it will be useful for you to know how to properly store wine in barrels.

Rules for storing wine in barrels

Firstly, it is worth noting that a wooden barrel is chosen as a place to store wine for a reason. The main task of such storage is the microoxidation of wine, which occurs through the pores of the wood of the barrel. And also, give the wine a special aroma. Many people note that wine from a barrel has a much stronger aroma and interesting taste than wine stored in another tank.

Secondly, before pouring wine into a barrel, you should decide on the size of the barrel itself. Experienced winemakers do not recommend using a wooden barrel with a volume of less than 50 liters.

What size wine barrel should I choose?

The choice of size depends on how much wine you want to pour into it. The standard keg size is 225 l. In such a barrel, you can easily store wine for a year. Winemakers advise tasting this wine once a week to determine what stage of development it is at. The main thing is to remember to add wine to the tank so that no air gets into the container.

Thirdly, a keg is not an easy object. You should immediately think about how you will pour the wine out of it. The best option is to build an overpass for it and store it on it. A height of 50 cm is perfect. Using a siphon hose, you can effectively strain wine.

Now, let's move on to studying in more detail the question of how to properly store wine in barrels.

In what room should a wine barrel be stored?

There are certain criteria for the room in which you are going to store wine. The room should be dark, but under no circumstances damp. A cool cellar will perfectly fulfill this role. The temperature in the room should always be in the same range, without sudden fluctuations. 10-12 degrees Celsius - this is exactly the number the thermometer should show.

During long-term storage of wine in a wooden barrel, it gradually begins to dry out (sediment collects at the bottom of the barrel). Therefore, you need to be prepared to add 2 to 4% of the drink annually. Why is it necessary to do this? When storing wine, it should never come into contact with air. Fill the empty volume with wine of the same type (this is one of the disadvantages of storing wine in barrels, therefore, at home and with a small volume of drink, aging can be carried out in bottles).

Homemade wine can be aged for up to 10 years, depending on the variety. If you are going to age dry white table wine, then count on a maximum period of up to 3 years. If we are talking about dessert and liqueur wines, then after adding sugar, the temperature in the room should become a little higher. This will speed up the development of taste. Aged wine becomes transparent. The original aroma of the drink is replaced by the resulting various esters and other substances - they create the so-called “bouquet of wine”.

Now you know the basics of how to properly store wine in barrels, but it is worth noting that many factors must be taken into account: the grape variety, the climate of the area, the influence of the barrel material on the drink. Before you start making wine, we recommend talking to winemakers in your area. It is worth noting that this is hard work, and you can see the result of your work only after a few years. But in this case, you will not lose anything. The wine has phenomenal properties. This is a healing drink that has been consumed for thousands of years.

Study as much information as possible, decide what kind of wine you want to make. Next, you need to purchase a special container for storing wine, and all the necessary accessories for winemaking.

Many people try to make a wine barrel themselves, or purchase an already used one to save money. In this case, it is better to do it yourself, because it is unknown how the previous owners treated the barrel.

You can purchase everything you need in our online store. We guarantee you the quality of the product and speed of delivery. With us, the winemaking process will become much more efficient.