Best place to get a barrel

[Rocky]

Hi Guys,


I am contemplating buying a couple of 23 L barrels from Vadai and I find this posting very interesting. I have some questions for Mike.


1. The schedule that you show in a prior posting I assume is to limit the time the wine is exposed to oak for the first batch of wine onward, right?


2. Also, you say that the wood bung sticks when swelling occurs. This happened to us with we used whiskey barrels years ago. A sideward blow or two with a small hammer or mallet seemed to loosen it. Are you saying this does not work with these barrels?


3. Do you recommend against installing a spigot? I know that spigots introduce a new level of challenges and perhaps just using the siphon to transfer is fine. We installed spigots in 44 gallon barrels and we had bungs with a small hole drilled in them into which we inserted a tapered dowel. We just removed the dowel and turned the spigot. The wine pretty much stayed in the barrels all year and we only removed it to make room for the next year's wine.

 

[ibglowin]

The small barrels like the 23L oak the wine at a super fast rate due to higher oak to wine surface area. The first batch through is usually only 1-2 weeks. then next batch is 2-4 weeks. Then 3-6 weeks, then 4-8 weeks. You need to taste as you go so you don't over oak. From my personal experience the oak will subside more so than a wine that was oaked with chips or beans. The silicon bung just works so much better than a solid stopper. If you want to whack it with a mallet, go for it. I'll just use a soft insert!

No experience with a spigot so your on your own there. You would have to drill your own, supply your own. If you go with a 40L you would for sure be able to leave the wine in for longer periods of time due to the larger surface area but you had better have a few double batches lined up and ready to go as you can't let the barrel go empty at all after it has wine in it unless you wat to mess with sulfur sticks.....