What causes my wine to be sour? and

[winemaker81]

I think everyone is right about barrels. I need them to go to the next level, it is a commitment I have been delaying.

Emphasis mine. Barrels are a commitment, not a container. You've seen that statement before ...

Barrels completely re-organized how I manage my wines. As mentioned, mine are long since neutral and my primary batches are started in October (this year it will be the 28th, but still in October!), and when ready for barrel in 3-4 weeks, I bottle the last year's wines, clean the barrels, and fill them with new.

This is not a bad thing, but it's something to consider. Barrels must be kept full, either of wine or holding solution. I don't see the point in making a holding solution, hence my current process.

This is not to say that my process meets everyone's needs. The barrels are 60% to 80% of my year's production, so they are the focal point. If I made enough wine to swap into the barrels on something other than a 12 month basis, I might view things differently.

This is a long way to saying you should think about how you're going to manage your barrel, which might become barrels at some point. I'm considering purchasing an 8 gallon barrel at some point in the future ...

 

[BarrelMonkey]

Barrels are a commitment, not a container.

Agreed!

Barrels must be kept full, either of wine or holding solution

Not sure I completely agree here. You do need to take special care rather than just rinsing a barrrel out and leaving it for 6 months, but I've seen dry barrels successfully put back into service after a year or more of disuse.

It helps if you can give the barrel a steam clean (though I would be loath to do this with a new barrel), and take some precautionary measures, eg use sulfur discs/sticks. The barrel might also need to be rehydrated if it's been left for a long time - it's amazing how an initially leaky barrel can swell up, sometimes over a period of days. And you might have to have some spiles on hand if you're unlucky enough to be visited by borers.

So leaving a barrel empty does not necessarily consign it to the bonfire, but it is as you say definitely a commitment!

 

[winemaker81]

Not sure I completely agree here. You do need to take special care rather than just rinsing a barrel out and leaving it for 6 months, but I've seen dry barrels successfully put back into service after a year or more of disuse.

True. Thanks for the correction.

My understanding is that the technique of drying the barrel is more for long term storage, not something I'd do if there was to be a relatively short gap in usage.