Over a Barrel

Posted 03/03/2008 at 11:41 AM by Dirk

I should be writing about the spring release wines because Nickel & Nickel will be showing its newest wines next weekend, but they will speak for themselves, and I had barrels on the brain today.

I love barrels. It's hard to be a winemaker and not be fascinated by them.  Barrels haven't changed much over the last few hundred years, except that they sure have gotten more expensive. (I know that noticing the price of things may be a sure indication of aging, but at the risk of dating myself, or being classified as homo-cheapskatus, barrels that are now over $1000 each used to be about $200 when I started making wine.) This means that a barrel now costs more than my first car! (Of course, my first car was French, too, and now that I think about it, the barrel represents better technology and quality control.)

We all worry about how our barrels taste. Most of us worry about which forest in France our oak is grown (even if we can't find Allier on the map), how long the staves are air dried, what amount of toasting is best, and if they will arrive on time.  It is really difficult to barrel ferment chardonnay if the barrels haven't arrived. (That is why we are not big fans of French dock strikes.)

Some of us like to get those fancy looking wood hoops (les cercles en bois). They don't actually make a difference to the wine, but they look cool and traditionally, they had a purpose. Some said that they were applied "green" to reduce the amount of expensive steel hoops needed, but it is more likely that they were good for protecting the ends of the barrels when they were rolled. They also were more likely to get attacked by bugs than the oak.

There is something satisfying about rolling a barrel...the right way. If you want to roll it like a log, stay away from the cellar. It needs to be rolled on its head (a barrel has two heads but you still have to use your head to know which one is for show and which one is for go – there will be a quiz later).

We used to have a barrel event at Far Niente where we started with each person having a barrel at the carriage house. The course required that each contestant and his barrel make it to the front gate then back in front of the winery and all the way back up to the carriage house. It is a LONG ways to roll a barrel.

I tried to appeal when the judges disqualified me. (There had not been a regulation about "barrel size" and being shorter than the others, I assumed a smaller barrel was acceptable. It was a technicality that my barrel only weighed 3 pounds, while theirs were about 110.)

Back to the barrels.  I always look at barrels when I visit a winery. When you notice the details, they tell a great deal about the care and experience in the cellar. If the cellar crew has them perfectly level, clean, and lined up as if they were stacked to a laser, you can bet that they are perfectly topped and cared for. I always check out barrel stacks out of habit. The wine doesn't know if the stack is perfect, but it certainly will show if it gets the best care with topping, sanitation, racking, etc. The perfect stacks are just an indication of the craftsmanship that the cellar team brings to working the wine. (It may also have to do with the fact that they are so darned expensive, too!)

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