When we ask a winemaker about his wine, usually the first question is if it was aged in wood or stainless steel. One can consider if this question is always appropriate, because some wines can’t be aged in wood, some need ageing in barrel, and for the renowned winemakers ageing in barrel is almost necessary. Barriques, large wooden casks, stainless steel, cement have their advantages and disadvantages. The choice of ideal container depends on the variety of wine. The so called industrial wines, which are obtained thanks to technology, can be made only in stainless steel. The artisan wines need barrel not to generate unique aromas, but to aerate wine, to allow breathing.
Thermal issues are of big importance. Wood is a bad conductor of heat, so the wine producing zone more to the south, the barrels should be thicker and bigger. Barriques or small barrels with the capacity of 225 liters come from northern France. They speed up the maturing of wine, however don’t bring any aromas! The staves of barrique are small and thin. The oxidation of wine is a process inversely proportional to the mass, so in the zones of warm climate the mass should be bigger and matured in large casks. Wood is a crucial issue for an artisan winemaker, because it’s a living vat. It’s known that wood has porous structure, which allows wine to evolve.
Don’t exclude stainless steel, as it is a neutral container. However, during spontaneous fermentation, when temperature is rising, the wine can react bed, developing sulfurous smell. Apart from fluctuations of temperature, stainless steel generates magnetic fields hard to manage for winemakers that don’t filter their wines. Stainless steel also doesn’t give the possibility to clarify wine completely, filtration is almost necessary. It’s certainly the most practical and useful container for industrial wines.
There is also cement. It’s most similar to wood, because can introduce oxygen and is neutral. Many artisan winemakers use this kind of vats. Terracotta containers, resembling clay amforae, have been popular lately too.
Stainless steel is considered obligatory by most winemaking companies, while artisan winemakers don’t vinify their wines in such vats for long. They prefer large wood casks with the capacity between 500 and 700 liters, usually from oak, even for white wines. Oak is hard and insulates wine better. For red wines are also used chestnut barrels, because it is very porous and allows better oxygen transfer.
The answer to the question if the wine was barrel-aged will be positive, when we ask a winemaker making wine in a natural method, mostly reds. However, white grape varieties can also be aged in wood. There are many examples of barrel-aged whites.
For white and pink wines the answer will be negative, especially from big producers producing millions hectoliters of wine.
Anyway, whatever the container it shouldn’t dominate the essence of wine. The “purity” of wine in the sense of fruit is always above all.
