Ageing wines

[Loki_darkwolf]

Hi all.

First question for your esteemed selves.

Aging wine. I know traditionally it is done in wood barrels. However, given I am currently lacking in space and finances for even a 1 litre oak barrel, I was wondering if it was possible to use some of the accelerated aging sometime used in spirits (adding of toasted wood staves etc) and if so how?

Would I put wood saves or chunks in the demijohn during the fermentation? That would be the least mess option as hopefully everything will stay in the fermentation demijohn during decanting

Or

Decant off the leas into a second demijohn (with staves for aging) and then decant a second time into storage bottles?

What would be the risks?

 

[lupinehorror]

i'll not do the ageing winos joke.
many use oak chips. some info here.
sure others will be able to contribute more.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Aging wine. I know traditionally it is done in wood barrels. However, given I am currently lacking in space and finances for even a 1 litre oak barrel,

What are you making?

I don't think many (if any members) here use wood to age wine they bottle it and put it in a dark cool place and let it do its thing, i am not saying your wood staves idea wouldn't work but its a method i cannot remember ever being discussed at length here.

 

[LED_ZEP]

I have and do add oak to some wines to give it some extra tannin.
If you do, it will take longer in the bottle to reach it's best but the results are worth it. If you can get old of an old wine/whisky barrel it'll give you a big supply of the correct Oak type and work out cheaper than buying the bags of chips (it's normally French or American White Oak). If you're any good at woodwork here's something that's easy to make (and sell) from barrel staves to recoup some of the cost.

 

[johncrobinson]

The benefit of ageing wines in barrels is not the oak,It is the VERY SLOW diffusion of oxygen into the wine.
This is a seeming paradox when we consider the lengths we go to keeping air (oxygen) out during almost the whole of the winemaking process.
The secret is--- To be effective the diffusion of oxygen needs to be very slow and in small amounts.
The Oak effect is just a bonus,

The process really only works well with large barrels,smaller 1gal barrels are useless in this regard as the surface area to volume ratio is way too high.
Smaller barrels can be treated with varnish to slow down the oxygen entry into the wine but 1gal is really a bit too small for anything but short term storage.or as a dispensing ornament at a social occasion.

 

[johncrobinson]

Speaking of oak,Wood chips can be very successfully used even in glass storage,Moreover a huge range of flavours can be achieved by toasting the chips to a greater or lesser degree.

I used to get my chips during the barbecue season.But i don't see them here in Scotland come to think of it i don't see a barbecue season here either.

 

[Loki_darkwolf]

Speaking of oak,Wood chips can be very successfully used even in glass storage,Moreover a huge range of flavours can be achieved by toasting the chips to a greater or lesser degree.

I used to get my chips during the barbecue season.But i don't see them here in Scotland come to think of it i don't see a barbecue season here either.

At what point do you put the chips in?

Right at the beginning or do put them a separate aging jar prior to bottling?

 

[johncrobinson]

I put the chips in once the wine has cleared.
If you use a demijohn you can add them loose and strain into a bucket after about a week.
The finer the chips the quicker they work.
The ones sold for barbecues are really fine and are better bagged and dunked occasionally like a tea bag.
I remove them as soon as i can taste the difference.I seems to me anyway that the flavours still come forward as the wine matures.For the same reason i don't use a lot (about the same as a tea bags worth to 1gal.


I think some folk put them in during the fermentation,They are better in a bag if done either way
I also believe you can get oak spirals to go in individual bottles but i have never tried them.
There are wood cubes also on the market in several different woods but again i have not used them

Its extra bother i grant you but its well worth doing.It adds shall we say complexity