05/20/08 Barrel Fermented vs Aged

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran and on today's program we are going to discuss the difference between barrel-fermented and barrel-aged. I love going wine tasting at the wineries it always gives me material for my shows. Recently, I noticed that the folks pouring wine use a lot of wine lingo, and took it for granted that everyone knows what they are referring too. One example was the use of the terms barrel-aged and barrel-fermented. Moreover, it is not that I don't think that anyone could sermise that barrel-fermented means that the grape juice was put into the barrel and then fermented into wine. But then what? Was it left to age in that same barrel and is now referred to as barrel-aged? What they really wanted to know is how does that make the wine taste? Well barrel-fermented mostly refers to white wine, as most red wines are not barrel fermented, they are tank fermented and barrel aged. Many white wines such as Chardonnay are barrel-fermented and/or barrel aged. A white wine fermented in the barrel will taste less oaky than a white wine that was aged in the barrel. Meaning that, if the wine was fermented in stainless steel, then transferred to barrels afterwards to age it is oakier than if it was just barrel fermented. If the wine was both barrel-fermented and barrel-aged, it will more likely, be the oakiest smelling and tasting of all. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.