Seeping barrel

[Garagista]

I racked Petitie Syrah to a repurposed oak barrel. After barrel prep and a 3 day water fill, there were no leaks. After filling with wine, of course it leaked some. Wine is thinner and alcohol is a solvent so this was not unexpected. I hammered in some spiles and it stopped leaking. It has been 3 days now and the stains have not grown.

My question is whether I should be concerned about the stains that remain. It could continue to seep.

 

[ibglowin]

I would hit it with some KMETA spray and dab it dry so you might be able to see if its stopped leaking. If it continues a little bit of wax on the areas that continue to leak should help to seal it up. They make a barrel wax if you can find it but I have used canning wax and it worked just fine and you can find it usually at the grocery or hardware store.

 

[BarrelMonkey]

If it's stopped leaking you should be good. As @ibglowin said, it wouldn't hurt to spray/wipe with some k-meta to dissuade anything from growing there, but the former leak shouldn't affect your wine. I think you'll see many cases like this in most commercial wineries.