Often we hear about how this or that upper-tier blend is composed of wine from the “best barrels.” Are these barrels you’ve singled out beforehand, or only after tasting all of them…or both? Is it possible that this is a moving target each vintage, and sometimes the “best barrels” just don’t perform?
We bring down and taste every barrel every month, and make notes on the new bbls. Even though the fruit from a particular vineyard will generally have consistent charicteristics year after year, every vintage is different, so they way they perform in barrel is different. Same with the oak. Two of the “same” barrels by the same producer can taste different. Barrels from the same producer can taste different from year to year. So yes, everything changes, and nothing can ever be counted on to be predictable. In addition, many wineries experiment with different barrels/coopers, so new and hopefully good marriages of wine/wood can be found every year.
Two weeks ago, my wife and I were at Paso Robles and got to visit Villa Creek. We had the chance to taste syrah from a french barrel and hungarian barrel. While both were pretty good, I thought that the syrah from the french barrel had the more traditional aroma and taste but, I must admit, I was intrigued by the syrah from the hungarian barrel. I know that eventually they get blended but my question: is there a big difference in cost between the two and if there is, do you see more wineries using hungarian and other non-french/american barrels or is that too much of a taboo?
Thanks.
Yes there is a big cost dif.- $400-700 for Hungarian. French oak can be/is double that in cost. We use Hungarian oak on our Syrahs and Zinfandels. We age our wines in a combo of 2-5 yr old French oak with 10-30% new Hungarian. Hungarian oak brings nice baking spices on the nose and back end, without overwhelming the fruit/varietal character. I think you’ll see more wineries using Hungarian/Eastern European oak in the future. I can imagine that Pinot Noir would be a great match with Hungarian oak, if used judiciously.
Nice response, John, spot on. And I think most wineries base their barrel choices on performance, not price. However, I would also add that I sometimes suspect a sort of “reverse snobbery” exists when a winery insists its wines only go into new French oak, all the time. And that is generally enough of a warning to me that I probably won’t like the wine. I am not totally oak-averse, but I do not like heavy-handed oak at all.
Dan will sometimes move a wine from French to Hungarian or American oak, or vice versa. So when we declare a reserve wine comes from our “best” barrels what we really mean is Dan’s selection from his favorite lots for that vintage.