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BARRELS Building Barrels for Fermentation Coopers meet demand by winemakers who seek to ferment reds in barrel By Andrew Adams Highlights • ew products are designed to N make barrel fermentation easier for winemakers at smaller wineries with less staff. • everal coopers offer large-format S barrel fermentation. • ome suppliers offer racks with S rollers to help spin barrels during primary fermentation. T o help winemakers incorporate barrel-fermented red wines into their style, coopers are upgrading and complementing their offerings with features specific to the process. Products include small, stainless-steel hatches on barrelheads, racks to help manage the cap during fermentation and large-format barrels similar to oak vats. While there's always the option of simply knocking the heads off barrels to fill them with grapes—and most coopers will deliver new barrels with the heads removed by request—some cooperages are selling barrels with features to make the loading process quicker and easier. Tonelería Nacional, the Chilean oak barrel and alternative manufacturer, unveiled its fermentation barrel at this year's Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento, Calif. The new barrel, available for the Odysé, Mistral and Ambrosia brands, is equipped with a small stainless hatch on the head. To load the barrel, winemakers can stand it on its end and dump must through the open hatch or attach a hose and pump must through the 2-inch opening. 42 W in es & V i ne s J U LY 2 013 Michael Peters, the cooper's North American sales manager, said attaching a hose to the opening is the easiest way to fill the barrel. He said the new fermentation option was developed in response to requests from winemakers. Peters said the goal was to offer winemakers at smaller wineries the option to add a touch of barrel-fermented wine to their programs without the added hassles. "It's not a big, complex production," Peters said. "Even a small guy can do two complete barrels and finish with one barrel of barrel-fermented wine." Peters said the cooperage used to offer 300-liter barrels with stainless steel heads and a 6-inch stainless steel door. Most U.S. wineries don't use the 300-liter size, and Peter said by moving down to a more standard 225-liter barrel or 500-liter puncheon, winemakers can add barrel fermentation into their regular barrel programs. Winemakers who put in the extra effort of fermenting reds in barrel say it lends the wines a multi-layered complexity that also exhibits a smooth integration of tannins. To help achieve that, as well as break up the small cap inside the barrel, rotating the barrels is a key step of the process. Peters said having the ability to rotate the fermentation vessel ensures fruit comes into contact with the wood as well as lees. "Getting that lees contact is really an important part of the process," Peters said. "We want that lees contact every time you rotate the barrel." Upgrades to the Baron line of products Western Square Industries produces racks with wheels to spin barrels, as does the Spanish company Sagarte, which is distributed in the United States through Rich Xiberta. Tonelería Nacional recommends loading its new fermentation barrels by connecting a hose directly to the small hatch on the barrel head.