4score
Member
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2013
- Messages
- 501
- Reaction score
- 513
I have my Barbera in a new 60-gallon American oak barrel. Is it too much oak? The jury is still out. With Barbera, many purists will say to give it minimal oak so as not to mute the fruit. But I have had many local commercial Barbera wines that had plenty of oak and they were outstanding. The American Barbera is a bit "bolder" I think compared to the Italian wine. I think ours can stand up to the oak better. I'm definitely tasting and smelling the oak. My pH is a bit lower than NorCal's too. Mine tastes better than it smells right now......and when we blend his and mine together, we get something even better than each of our own by themselves! I'm going to give it until July/August - when I'll be bottling it. I have some blending options (12 gallons of ZIN, 10 gallons of non-oaked Barbera) that I can use if Norcal doesn't want to blend. Or, maybe at that time it won't need blending. We'll see.
