Production and aging of wine in the small oak cooperage

Wines & Vines, March, 2001 by Richard H. Graff, Andre Tchelistcheff

Economic Aspects

Additional Costs. The figures in the accompanying table, although based on actual observations, are by their nature approximate, and will vary from winery to winery. They are meant to give a general idea of the increased costs resulting from the use of new oak cooperage, i.e., roughly $1.00 per gallon.

The listed figures, of course, do not allow for the salvage value of the once-used barrels. If properly cared for and kept free of tartar deposits, they serve very well for the aging of lesser wines.

Arrangement and Handling. In general, barrels take up more space for a given amount of wine than do large tanks. Not always, however. It depends on the arrangement of the barrels. For example: if a comparison is made between 60-gallon Burgundy barrels stacked in racks four high, and 5,000-gallon tanks, allowing four feet of access space in both cases, the barrels take up twice as much room per unit volume as do the tanks. The barrels can, however, be stacked on top of one another, supported only by wooden wedges, and the access space reduced or eliminated. In this way, the efficiency of space utilization can be at least doubled and made comparable to that of the 5,000-gallon tanks. This barrel arrangement is only feasible when rackings are frequent enough to obviate toppings in between, and the barrels are placed so that the bung-stave is either two-o'clock or ten-o'clock in order to minimize aeration. This is a practice widely followed in Bordeaux during the second and subsequent years of aging when the chat eaux are in the habit of having large quantities of a single wine, and where the wines are racked every three or four months. A drawback of this system is that barrels in the center of the stack are inaccessible, but if they are of good quality and in good condition, the likelihood of one developing a leak is slight.

When making space calculations involving 60-gallon barrels, three feet should be allowed for the length and 30 inches for the maximum diameter at the bilge.

As a full barrel of wine weighs around 500 lbs., operations should be planned to avoid the necessity of moving a full barrel. Empty barrels are readily managed by hand except when they are being moved to or from a third or higher tier. Here some kind of a lift or hoist is really essential.

Quality Control

One of the most important things to remember when using small cooperage is that there are no rules for the length of time required for aging in the barrel. This depends on (1) the cellar conditions: humidity, temperature, daily and seasonal temperature variations, air movement; (2) the wine characteristics: the variety, the characteristics of the particular vintage (maturity, grape quality, sugar-acid balance, etc.), the chemical and biological makeup; and (3) the wood characteristics: its treatment, porosity, and other regional traits.

A cool, humid, still cellar in which the temperature does not vary allows for a long aging period--a full year and longer in new oak for white Burgundies, for example. Under warm, dry or fluctuating temperature conditions, the aging process and the extraction of aromatic and flavor material from the wood are greatly accelerated, and not necessarily to the benefit of the wine.