Selection, use and maintenance of the hottest barr

Selection, use and maintenance of barrel packaging

as a kind of wine packaging container, oak barrel has been used by people long ago, and its history can even be traced back to ancient times. But in history, people used wooden barrels to improve the taste, aroma and color of wine. This is true even in some regions, such as champagne, port wine and some white wines from Bordeaux. It is a relatively late innovation to use barrels as an auxiliary means of brewing high-end wine, which began about 100 years ago. As the elegance of the wine stored in oak barrels is increasingly recognized and loved by consumers, oak barrels are increasingly favored by winemakers around the world, especially in wine new world countries

a bottle of high-quality wine is like a fine art! All wines aged in oak barrels, in addition to the characteristics, variety aroma and wine aroma of grapes, she will also give drinkers a pleasant aroma of vanilla, cocoa, coffee, or both

wine is alive, which is the consensus of people in the wine industry. How to correctly select, use and maintain oak barrels, so that the wine just after fermentation can be safely aged in oak barrels, absorb the beneficial ingredients of oak, and grow into a wine suitable for people's taste. A good wine with international style and full display of its own unique fruit aroma

first, we should carefully select the appropriate barrel

the purpose of barrel storage is to absorb the essence of oak and give wine a certain degree of oxidation. The type and quantity of substances absorbed and the degree of oxidation directly affect the sensory quality of wine, which largely depends on the barrel selected. Therefore, the first thing a winemaker should do before making wine is to choose the right barrel. This should include three aspects:

1. Types of oak

there are many kinds of oak in the world (about 250). Due to the different structure and composition, each kind of oak gives different flavor to wine. Based on the successful experience all over the world, there are three main tree species that are most commonly used and popular in the wine industry. That is, Louvre oak and summer oak produced in France, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland and other European countries, as well as American white oak mainly produced in the United States. The grain structure characteristics of the three tree species are similar, but the physical and chemical composition and aroma characteristics are refined, which has become the goal of the plastic extruder industry

its physical and chemical composition is as follows:

Project

Louvre oak

summer oak

American white oak

dry soaking (mg/g)

total phenol (D280)

tannin (mg/g)

methyloctene (ug/g)

eugenol (ug/g)

140

30

15

16

2

90

22

8

77

8

55

7

4

140

8

it can be seen from the above table that the dry leaching of

floating rubber is higher. It is rich in water-soluble phenolic compounds, but volatile. It is expected that the pig iron market will run in a weak position in the near future, with less aromatic substances; Summer oak is characterized by a good balance between volatile aromatic substances and phenolic compounds; The characteristic of American white oak is that the content of vanillin in aroma substances is relatively high. Most people think that the oak aroma of Europe is more elegant and delicate, which is easy to integrate with the fruit and wine aroma of wine, while the aroma of American white oak is stronger. It is easy to dissociate from the fruity and wine aroma of wine. If you like to make a single wine with strong oak flavor, it is recommended to choose American Baidong; If you want to make a wine with harmonious and elegant oak, fruit and wine aroma, you should choose European oak

2. Barrel type

there are many specifications and models of wooden barrels. The barrel type includes Bordeaux type, Burgundy type, Shirley type, etc., and the capacity ranges from 30 liters, 100 liters, 225 liters, 228 liters, 300 liters, 500 liters, or even thousands of liters. Two factors need to be considered when selecting the barrel model: the convenience of operation and the internal specific surface area. People often choose 225 liter Burgundy type wooden pokes. This kind of oak barrel not only has a suitable surface area to volume ratio, but also is very convenient to move, operate and clean

3. Baking degree

wine is stored in oak barrels to absorb the aromatic substances in oak, wood tannins and other effective ingredients. The effective ingredients that can be extracted from different oak barrels are different, which mainly depends on the roasting process in the oak barrel production process. If the curing degree is different, even if the wood type and model are the same, the flavor of the same kind of wine stored will be greatly different. People have found in practice that oak barrels that have been moderately roasted will give wine a more fragrant and pleasant aroma, and the taste of wine that has been aged will be softer and fuller. Moreover, oak barrels with different baking degrees give different flavors to wine. Generally speaking, light and medium toasted oak will give wine a burnt and pleasant aroma of fresh bread; Over baked oak will make the wine aged in it produce a taste like diesel. Therefore, when choosing the baking degree of oak barrels, we must carefully consider the style of the wine we make

II. Oak treatment of wine

there are many methods of oak treatment of wine, and red and white wine are slightly different. White wine is fermented in oak barrels and aged on wine mud; Red wine is aged in oak barrels after alcohol fermentation, malic acid and lactic acid fermentation and simple natural clarification. No matter which method is adopted, the most important thing to achieve ideal results is to strengthen daily management. Must achieve:

1. Control the temperature and humidity of aging

the temperature of aging is best controlled below 20 ℃, and the size is longer and wider than 50cm respectively than the base of the experimental machine, and the maximum should not exceed 25 ℃. If the temperature is too high, the wine is prone to rancidity and oxidation too fast; However, the temperature should not be too low, because too low temperature is easy to precipitate tartrate in wine and adhere to the barrel wall, thus affecting the effect of extraction. The humidity should be 80% to 90%. If the humidity is too low, frequent barrel filling operation is required. If the humidity is too high, it will provide a good hotbed for the breeding of microorganisms, which may eventually lead to moldy taste and rancidity of wine

2. Avoid pollution

wine is quite delicate and easy to be polluted by miscellaneous flavors. The oak barrel storage room should not only maintain a small change in temperature, but also maintain a certain degree of air fluidity. So as to avoid pollution caused by long-term retention of air. Pay special attention to prevent chlorates from polluting the air in the storage room. For example, do not use substances such as bleach and chlorine containing fungicides in the storage room; Do not let construction dust enter the storage room. Wash the surface of the barrel regularly to prevent the floating dust on the barrel surface from entering the wine during the barrel filling operation

3. Add barrels and stir in time

due to the volatilization of wine itself and the moisture absorption of oak barrels, the wine surface stored in barrels will gradually decrease. Thus causing dissatisfaction with the oak barrel. In contrast to Shirley wine, in order to maintain the fruity aroma of the wine and prevent excessive oxidation and the sharp rise of volatile acids, it is necessary to regularly check the wine surface, make up this deficiency in time, and maintain full storage. According to different processes, sometimes the wine in the oak barrel needs to be stirred regularly, so that the wine mud is always suspended in the wine liquid during storage

4. Regular tasting and analysis

the length of wine barrel storage depends on the type and style of wine, ranging from a few months to decades. Such as Spanish sherry and Portuguese bortu, the barrel storage time can be up to 20 years, which is suitable for the production of aging style wines. The most popular and successful experience and practice in wine new world countries is generally to store wine in oak barrels for 8 to 12 months, and then modulate it according to its own product characteristics

wine is a living body, which needs the careful care and care of the winemaker during its barrel aging. Besides keeping the barrel full, wine should be tasted regularly. Another advantage of regular tasting and analysis is that problems can be found in time. Such as musty taste, rancidity or other peculiar smell. It can also accurately predict the maturity date of wine

III. maintenance of oak barrels

due to the high cost of oak barrels and the purpose of wine oak barrel storage is to absorb the beneficial ingredients in the image wood, so as to improve the quality of wine. If the oak barrels are not properly maintained, the quality of oak will deteriorate, which will not only cause waste of resources, but also cause irreparable losses to the quality of wine stored in them. The maintenance of oak barrels needs to follow the following original rules:

1. Try to shorten the interval between the purchase and use of barrels

because barrel companies start hooping after receiving orders. Delaying the purchase as much as possible can ensure the freshness of oak baking flavor and prevent the infection of mildew

2. Try not to leave the oak barrel empty

because the wood is easy to absorb moisture and is not easy to dry naturally, the barrel is very easy to be polluted by mold and acetic acid bacteria when it is idle. Therefore, in the production arrangement, it should be cleaned immediately after emptying and filled with wine immediately. Do not give mold and Acetobacter the opportunity to pollute the barrel. If you can't load wine immediately after emptying. Fill the barrel with sulfur dioxide aqueous solution (about 150 200mg/1). If the barrel is empty for several months, it can be preserved by dry method or wet method. During the period of vacancy, it is necessary to check regularly and treat with sulfur dioxide to ensure that the barrel is not polluted by mold and acetic acid bacteria. As frequent water change will lose the effective ingredients in oak, it is recommended not to use wet method to save empty barrels as this will shorten the service life of oak barrels

3. Adopt appropriate treatment methods

it should be pointed out that there is no completely correct barrel cleaning method, and the principle of appropriate cleaning is to clean the barrel to the greatest extent, while ensuring that the adverse impact on the barrel is as small as possible

now we recommend several reasonable cleaning measures:

① cleaning of new barrels. New barrels are generally processed after ordering. Therefore, the cleaning of new barrels is relatively simple and convenient. The most commonly used method is: first rinse them with a barrel washing machine, and then soak the end face of the first barrel with 20 liters of hot water for 1 hour. Soak the end face of the second barrel for 2 hours; Then fill it with clean water and soak it for 12 days. After the barrel is fully expanded, it can be used. For safety, it is suggested that sulfur dioxide treatment should be carried out at the same time of water infiltration, that is, soak oak barrels with water containing 200mg/L of sulfur dioxide or fumigate sulfur after infiltration treatment

② cleaning of oak barrels to be used immediately after emptying. If there is no problem in the last storage, the wooden barrel can be used by washing it directly with a barrel washing machine; If rancidity occurs during the last storage, steam should be used for treatment after rinsing in order to kill the acetic acid bacteria remaining in the oak barrel; If there is a musty smell in the last storage, the only way is to discard the barrel or use it for other commercial purposes

③ the cleaning of wooden barrels that have been vacant for a long time is relatively simple if the oak barrels are preserved by the warm method. Just use a bucket washer to wash, and then soak in pure water for 23 days to remove the excess sulfur dioxide. In case of dry storage