Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/116287
OAK ALTERNATIVES an enormous amount of wasted wood. Barrel stave inserts use alternatives. One time at an ASEV conference I heard Ed Sbragia all of the heartwood with the exception of the saw cut. We pritalk about the quality of machine-harvested fruit versus handmarily use Innerstave since they have provided us with consistent harvested. His comment was that a good machine harvester opoak flavor that our customers have become accustomed to. erator provided higher quality than hand harvesting. He closed W&V: What is the cost of putting Innerstaves in a barrel vs. by saying, "Get over it!" buying a new French barrel? Oak flavor is oak flavor, and you need to find the correct Pessagno: As we all know, new French oak barrels are in the match for your wines. W&V: Keeping a barrel usable for 10 vintages requires a lot of $900 range. Most alternatives (stave inserts, beans, spirals, cleaning. How do you clean your barrels? rods, etc.) are about $100 per barrel, installed. Besides the obPessagno: If you take very good care of your barrels, they vious financial savings, we have found that we get a very high will look and perform like new for many years. Again, we level of consistency with our alternative oak suppliers. I recomplan on a 50% reduction in flavor every time they are filled, mend that winemakers try several of the alternative suppliers so that they are flavor neutral on their fourth fill, but their to determine what works best for their wine. Most suppliers oxidative effect stays relatively do their toasting in-house with intact. We will generally stave a very consistent results. Since we Oak Depletion Rates barrel in its fourth and seventh produce mostly Pinot Noir and year. After that, they are turned Chardonnay, we have a preferinto planters. ence for tight-grain French oak We rinse our barrels with a toasted to medium-plus. The standard barrel washer with characteristic caramel flavor of 150ºF water. After about five this toast level has become a minutes, we require our staff signature of our wines. W&V: How does using Innerto look into every barrel with a stave give you more flexibility? flashlight to make sure it is clean Pessagno: When purchasing of solids and tartrates. We repeat Pessagno created a formula to calculate flavor based on oak use. new French oak barrels, most rinsing, if necessary, until all orders need to be completed in May for delivery in September. solids and tartrates are visibly gone. In the case of Innerstaves, With oak inserts and additives you can make a phone call and their orientation inside the barrel allows all surfaces where usually have them in less than 30 days. This flexibility allows us settling would occur to be in a direct line of sight with the rinse to look at the quality and style of the harvest and adjust our oak water stream. The barrels stay upside down overnight with a flavor requirements accordingly. Dixie cup in them so that they continue to drain, and the cups W&V: How often do the wines that have been in barrels with keep out any fruit flies. In the morning, they are gassed for two staves make the blends for your top wines? to three seconds with pure SO2 and solid bunged. To make it easy for the forklift driver to know he's dealing with empty Pessagno: Consistency in flavor profiles is very important to barrels, we rotate the bungholes to a 45º angle pointing inward our customer base, and we can count on our alternative oak supon the barrel racks. pliers to deliver that consistency. Very often our barrel staves are To download Steve W&V: You've developed a spreadused in our top wine blends. They can be effective in tuning up a Pessagno's oak depletion spreadsheet, see the digital sheet (pictured) that tracks oak blend that needs an oak jolt. Just shooting from the hip, I'd say edition at winesandvines.com. depletion rates in your regular barbarrel staves make up 20% to 30% of our final reserve blends. TonnellerieDeJarnac_Dir10 11/11/09 3:40 PM Page 1 rels and barrels with Innerstaves. Please explain how that works. It used to be taboo to even mention that you were using oak COLD AIR DRAIN® Frost Protection Handcrafted & Authentic COST EFFECTIVE! Contact: Yannick Rousseau Tel: (707) 332 4524 • Fax: (707) 224 8734 Email: yannickrousseau@sbcglobal.net Website: www.tonnellerie-de-jarnac-16.com Most systems have a 100% payback in the first year. Minimal site prep. Fuel efficient. No maintenance contracts. POWERFUL! State-of-the-art propeller sends cold air up approximately 300 ft. VERSATILE! Size & power options available to meet your needs. Targeted protection for frost pockets, swales, slopes, valleys, etc. Use alone or with wind machines, water, or heaters. FREE COMPUTERIZED FROST ANALYSIS & PRICE QUOTE! info@shurfarms.com SHuR FARMS www.shurfarms.com Frost Protection ® Toll Free 877-842-9688 th 1890 N. 8 Street, Colton, CA 92324 Celebrating 11 years of innovation and cold air drainage technology! Win es & Vi n es A PRI L 20 13 47