Barrel fermented Chardonnay in 2022!

[sour_grapes]

I’ve been in the market for quantity three, 1 or 2 year old used white wine 60 gallon barrels for our Chardonnay collective. It has been a tough order to fill, but I’m still on the hunt. If I can’t find this by June, I’ll pursue neutral white barrels and plan on adding adjuncts.

I confirmed with the vineyard the availability of 5 juice barrels (55 gallons each) of juice, so I’m pretty hopeful this will all come together.

Long shot, but do any of these float your boat? Wine Barrels

 

[NorCal]

Long shot, but do any of these float your boat? Wine Barrels

Logistics cost may be an issue. I’ve also thought of having one person in our little co-op buy a new barrel and then we blend back at the end.

 

[NorCal]

The hunt for 1,2,3 year old used white wine barrels turned up a big goose egg. We settled on recently retired, power washed, ozoned and sulfured neutral barrels. We got 3 for the group. We are committed to a whole lot of Chardonnay this year!


I had to clean mine up a bit and make a roller for it.

 

[ibglowin]

Good looking barrels IMHO. Did they have red (or white) wine in them in their previous life?

The hunt for 1,2,3 year old used white wine barrels turned up a big goose egg. We settled on recently retired, power washed, ozoned and sulfured neutral barrels. We got 3 for the group. We are committed to a whole lot of Chardonnay this year!
View attachment 88157

I had to clean mine up a bit and make a roller for it.
View attachment 88158

 

[NorCal]

Good looking barrels IMHO. Did they have red (or white) wine in them in their previous life?

They had white ( Chardonnay) in them previously. I didn’t realize how much more difficult it was going to be to find used white wine barrels In my area. These barrels came out of the Sonoma area, which borders Napa.

 

[winemaker81]

Given how few whites are barrel aged, I'm not as surprised. I can't recall seeing any advertisement for used white barrels. It's great that you got some!

Are you going to add oak adjuncts, since the barrels are neutral?

 

[NorCal]

I have a feeling that the barrel aged whites in our area uses very little new oak each year and they continue to reuse old barrels and just blend the wine from the new barrels and the neutral barrels to get their "20% new oak" I'm not a big fan of oaky wines, so I'll be adding oak spirals slowly and carefully.

We also got them at a very reasonable $125 each.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

They had white ( Chardonnay) in them previously. I didn’t realize how much more difficult it was going to be to find used white wine barrels In my area. These barrels came out of the Sonoma area, which borders Napa.

It’s because wineries like to keep them and continue using them even when neutral, we had about 50% neutral 50% new barrels at work and fermented all the whites in barrel. Of course that’s a lot more popular for white wines here than Napa or Sonoma, typically barrel fermenting white wines is more common with Rhone varietals, Marsanne,Roussane, Viognier, Grenache Blanc etc.

 

[NorCal]

Two of the three barrels filled with aciduated and sulfited water no problem. One however was a leaker. We thought it was a swelling issue, so we tried the cold and then the hot method without success. The leak was where the barrel head intersected with the staves. It ended up being a bored hole from some sort of beetle. I took a punch, made the hole a little bigger. I then found a wooden T, sanded the sides and hammered it in then chiseled off the end. Probably not the ideal material, but it’s held. Filled up the barrel to the top and found another one. I put another golf T in it and it’s been holding for a week or so.

 

[mainshipfred]

I quick search say golf tees are usually red cedar. I can't see how that would hurt anything.

 

[BarrelMonkey]

Two of the three barrels filled with aciduated and sulfited water no problem. One however was a leaker. We thought it was a swelling issue, so we tried the cold and then the hot method without success. The leak was where the barrel head intersected with the staves. It ended up being a bored hole from some sort of beetle. I took a punch, made the hole a little bigger. I then found a wooden T, sanded the sides and hammered it in then chiseled off the end. Probably not the ideal material, but it’s held. Filled up the barrel to the top and found another one. I put another golf T in it and it’s been holding for a week or so.

Spiles are your weapon of choice here... but a wooden golf tee sounds like an inventive and successful alternative!

 

[NorCal]

We are getting close! There are 4 people in our little collective, 3 are fermenting in 60 gallon barrels, 1 in a 30 gallon spiedel.

My objective is a smooth, creamy, buttery (but not over the top), flavorful Chardonnay.

The plan, posted below for peer review, do you think the below is consistent with the objective?
0. Target of: 22-23 brix, 3.2-3.4 pH Chardonnay juice
1. Let fresh Chard juice barrel settle 12-24 hrs, then rack from solids.
2. Fill barrel with 40-45 gallons of juice, rest in Spiedels
3. Inoculate with TR-313 yeast. (I want to use a non-H2S yeast, due to extra H2S risk
4. Ferment/store in 65-69 degree wine box. stirring daily
5. Once complete fermentation, rack off gross lees (or leave the gross lees if no off smells?)
6. Fill barrel with wine from the spiedel, add Beta mlf, stirring every 2-3 days
7. Rack and add SO2 immediately following the completion of MLF
8. Taste and maybe add just a touch of oak
9. Plan on rolling the barrel out in the barn during cold Dec-Jan months
10. Rack, degass if needed, filter if needed, bottle in Jan/Feb

 

[Nebbiolo020]

We are getting close! There are 4 people in our little collective, 3 are fermenting in 60 gallon barrels, 1 in a 30 gallon spiedel.

My objective is a smooth, creamy, buttery (but not over the top), flavorful Chardonnay.

The plan, posted below for peer review, do you think the below is consistent with the objective?
0. Target of: 22-23 brix, 3.2-3.4 pH Chardonnay juice
1. Let fresh Chard juice barrel settle 12-24 hrs, then rack from solids.
2. Fill barrel with 40-45 gallons of juice, rest in Spiedels
3. Inoculate with TR-313 yeast. (I want to use a non-H2S yeast, due to extra H2S risk
4. Ferment/store in 65-69 degree wine box. stirring daily
5. Once complete fermentation, rack off gross lees (or leave the gross lees if no off smells?)
6. Fill barrel with wine from the spiedel, add Beta mlf, stirring every 2-3 days
7. Rack and add SO2 immediately following the completion of MLF
8. Taste and maybe add just a touch of oak
9. Plan on rolling the barrel out in the barn during cold Dec-Jan months
10. Rack, degass if needed, filter if needed, bottle in Jan/Feb

Looks like a solid plan, you really want to let it settle and be careful you don’t get haze.

 

[NorCal]

We booked our order today! Quantity of 5 fifty five gallon barrels of fresh picked, pressed and settled Chardonnay juice about one hour drive away. @4score and @Busabill and two other buddies are also partaking.

The cost, $5.50 per gallon, which seems like a bargain. When I do white wine from grapes it takes around 20 pounds of grapes per gallon of finished wine. By comparison, the last time we made Viognier I paid $1.00 per pound. This juice by the barrel comes to the equivalent of $0.30 per pound or so (with racking allowance) and eliminates half a day of work!

We will see the quality of wine the grapes make, but it can’t be much worse than the quality of white grapes I’ve received in the past, which have all won silvers at the state fair.

 

[NorCal]

I have to say, that couldn’t have been any easier. In total qty 5, 55 gallon drums of pretty clean, fresh juice.

 

[NorCal]

Fermented dry in 5 days with TR-313 yeast. Racked and added beta mlb.

 

[NorCal]

My take, 60 gallon barrel and a 5 gallon carboy that I’ll bottle post mlf to support the racking and topping of the barrel.

 

[Maheesh]

Wow, what was ferment temp?

 

[crushday]

My take, 60 gallon barrel and a 5 gallon carboy that I’ll bottle post mlf to support the racking and topping of the barrel.
View attachment 93248View attachment 93249

Was the primary ferment in the wine box (wine room)? I suspect not...

Rose' of Cabernet Franc is still fermenting (started 8/28) at 70 degrees...

 

[BarrelMonkey]

Wow, what was ferment temp?

That was my question too! That's one fast ferment...