I’m really getting into Champagne and this year looking to take a break from Dry red wine, my dad and I made 4 full barrels of pinot noir in 2014 and have wayyyyyy too much red wine on hand once I bottle it all soon. Anyways, I would like to focus this year on making some sparkling and want to go make it a bit toasty, full bodied, similar to Bollinger. I’ve done some research and have noticed that some producers will barrel ferment their Rose, then barrel age until it completes Malo and then transfer it to stainless until Bottling/Tirage. So my question is this, I have a few “experimental” smaller barrels (50 Liter Radoux and 110 Liter Demptos). They’re both now 3 years used barrels that have only had Pinot Noir aged in them. If I whole cluster press some pinot noir into these barrels, will I pick up tons of color from the barrel? I don’t think tannin is a concern since I can always fine it out, but will it darken in there? Probably a dumb question but I don’t have a clue…
thanks! 
Shouldn’t matter. I’ve had Chard done in a red barrel and it had a pink tinge. Just enough to be embarrassing to the amateurish newbie winemaker. They still sold it at close to cost. Tasted fine.
You’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it if a little color is ok if your going for rose.
BTW not sure what kind of press your using but if its a home wine basket press it will be hard to get much color out of PN as you won’t be able to press it hard enough. Are your juice yields per tons less than 125 gallons? Mine were closer to 100gal/ton for hand crank and water bladder. If so I doubt you will get much color unless you foot stop first and let it sit for an hour or two then press it off. If going for true rose look for a few shades darker color than you want the finished wine as some will fall out though in your case the red barrel will add a little back.
Ok great, thanks to you both! Appreciate it!
And I will be using a basket press… So I will keep these yield numbers in mind that way I know how much grapes minimum I will need to harvest to yield what I will need.