Page 30 - Grapevine Jan-Feb 2020
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In The Winery
due to its positive physical characteristics to make winery sources from cooperages that provide bar-
staves, to give the shape to the barrels and no leak- rels derived from American, French and Eastern
ing. Most importantly, due to its richness in many European Oaks. Winemaker and Managing Partner
interesting molecules, the wood will bring structure Lee Lutes explains the reason for such careful diver-
and flavors to the wines or alcohols. In addition, sity.
the wood offers a certain porosity to allow oxygen
and other gas to pass through the staves, in and “We use French Oak exclusively for Pinot Noir
out.” and Chardonnay, as they simply have an affinity
for one another that is time tested and consum-
Remy points out that there are several elements er ‘qualified.’ We use two other primary barrel
that winemakers take into consideration when types, American and Eastern European, for other
choosing barrels and the different woods used to reds, such as our Red House Red, our Merlot or our
make them. Cabernet Franc. These two types of oak tend to
have more spice and tannin to them than French,
“A barrel should have a positive impact for the which works well with these bolder red wines.”
use of fermenting or aging a wine. The choice is
coming from the flavors that you will look for, size In the case of barrels made from American and
of the barrel, the percentage of new wood in your Eastern European Oaks, Lutes adds that the atten-
final blend, time for aging in the barrels, cellar tion to detail used to select these types of barrels
conditions to store the barrels (temperature, mois- is driven by knowing the cooperages that produce
ture).” them and the source of the actual wood.
Black Star Farms, located in Michigan’s Upper “We tend to prefer American Oak that either
Peninsula near the four-season resort town of comes from Minnesota or Missouri, as these tend
Traverse City, understands these multiple con- to be tighter grained barrels (from slower grow-
siderations. The award-winning, family-owned ing trees), but with good spice. The EE (Eastern
European) barrels we prefer tend to come from
Hungary, as they provide some cocoa and coffee
tones that are very complimentary to deeper red
wines. Different coopers source from all of these
regions, so there is much to choose from for wood
sourcing. There are specific coopers we prefer, but
most in the industry are quite good and make solid
barrels.”
Jeremy Santo, Winemaker for Washington’s
Mercer Wine Estates in Yakima Valley, agrees. The
fifth-generation winery sources barrels from 14
cooperages. Santo emphasizes the mutual trust
and respect that winemakers and cooperages
share.
“Why do I use the cooperages I do? The obvious
answer is they make amazing barrels. But the rela-
tionship is the most important part. My favorite
cooperages are also my friends. This allows for a
relationship that you can collaborate and ask ques-
tions on what’s the best type of barrel for which
wine. The coopers know what they are doing.
They guide me in the direction to make the best
wines.”
Santo echoes a recurring theme shared by Lutes
and Remy when it comes to selecting which bar-
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