Wine in Barrels

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. Today we are going to identified the difference between wine that is barrel aged as opposed to barrel fermented.

We often read or hear a wine described as barrel fermented or barrel aged and you may say why do I care? Or you may say what does that mean to me and my glass of wine? Well here is the deal, when fresh unfermented grape juice is put into an oak barrel for the purpose of completely fermenting the grape juice into wine in that barrel it is referred to, as you guessed it, barrel fermented wine. Now if the wine stays in the barrel for a very long time maybe months after it became wine then it is aging in the barrel and the terms would be used together. But a wine does not have to be fermented in a barrel to be aged in one. For example a big batch of grape juice could be fermented in a stainless steel tank and then afterwards a portion of it might be stored and aged in oak barrels. making it as you guess a barrel aged wine not a barrel fermented wine. White wine are usually the ones being barrel fermented. Now surprisingly enough most of the time barrel fermented Chardonnay for example will not taste as oaky as barrel aged Chardonnay, and that is a good reason to know the difference.  Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today’s Vine to Wine.