We’re often asked about our barrels… What type do we use and why? Does the barrel even matter? Well, we’re currently using 100% French Oak barrels (from forests in France). French oak is the tightest grain, meaning it has a smaller pore size that other oaks available on the market. Smaller pores take a longer integration time, but give a more subtle influence to the wine.
In short, yes, it does matter. As the oak ages, its influence on the wine’s flavour decreases, so that’s an important consideration. Coming from different forests, barrels have different toasting labels; fire-bent or water-bent, with varying lengths of air drying, which also makes a difference. These varieties allows us to make more complex and unique wines. As well, oak provides structure and oxygen, highlighting a stark contrast from a stainless steel barrel.
Our French oak barrels come from several cooperages, like: Mercury, Cadus, Radoux, Darmmonde and Jaegle, Damy, Billon and Francois Frere. We typically purchase new barrels each year, so that we have staggered ages of oak to choose from, either for fermenting or for ageing.
For quality control, we conduct barrel tastings once a month to ensure that our standards are being met. When we decide the wine is ready, we start with trial blends and then we bottle. We’ve taken a stylistic approach and we’ve found that this works for us. Try our oak aged and fermented wines and let us know what you think!
Check out more of our blogs on our website here: https://adamoestate.com/blog/