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w i n e m a k i n g 30 W i n e s & V i n e s M A R C H 2 0 1 4 The first and easiest to implement is to embrace variety, to celebrate the surprises that show up in the barrel room. Second is to emphasize the tried and true: If you have been getting good wood from a particular cooper or combination of coopers, stick with the program. A third approach, common in the industry, is to rely on safety in numbers, using barrels from several cooperages and multiple toast levels. If this year's barrels from Quercus Expensivus don't deliver enough caramel flavor, maybe the ones from Fils et Frères will pick up the slack. And as Gordon Burns points out, numbers matter in another way. Most final wines are blended from multiple barrels, often dozens or hundreds, which can mean that the differ- ences settle out and that winemakers can pick and choose from among lots of options. With multiple coopers or a single, monopoly coo- perage, the aromatic impact of barrel aging, barrel by distinctive barrel, is always going to be critical for making final blends. A fourth option, highly recommended by Collins and, of course, by ETS, is to do some testing of your barrel stock, thereby obtaining chemical profiles to go along with sensory evaluations. ETS does this by taking samples of wine—or, less often, wood—extracting volatiles from the head- space and analyzing their presence and concentration through GC/MS (gas chro- matography/mass spectroscopy). The anal- ysis focuses on nine "indicator" compounds that have the greatest sensory impact and are also good proxies for the dozens of other similar compounds that may show up. Tom Collins uses the same methodol- ogy and compound list; he originally had ETS do his testing, but now he has his own set of expensive equipment. The levels of almost all of these compounds can be traced to toast level. Cribbing from the ETS website, here are a couple of examples: Eugenol and Isoeugenol: Eugenol is the main aroma compound found in cloves. Pres- ent in raw oak, eugenol is reported to increase during open-air wood seasoning. Eugenol and isoeugenol possess a very similar spicy, clove-like aroma. Release into wine is reported to increase with toasting level. Furfural and 5-Methylfurfural: Furfural and 5-methylfurfural result from carameliza- tion of cellulose and hemicellulose during barrel toasting. They possess sweet, butter- scotch, light caramel and faint almond-like aromas. They are also markers for the whole family of caramelization compounds. Results of the tests are displayed in spider plots (see illustration), a graphical form that makes the relative strength of multiple com- ponents quite visually evident, facilitating the comparison of different samples. Systematic testing practices also make it possible to do year-to-year comparisons. Burns says the number of wineries that are working with ETS on oak aromatics on a regular basis has increased in recent years, and he now has several dozen clients with regularized testing programs. Collins says it won't hurt any winery to take a barrel or two apart every now and then and see where its wine has been living, sending some scrapings off for testing. He claims it isn't that hard to put the barrels back together again, once you get the hang of it. So, lots of options for handling the barrel challenge. The only thing winemakers cannot do is blithely assume a barrel is a barrel. Tim Patterson is the author of "Home Winemaking for Dummies." He writes about wine and makes his own in Berkeley, Calif. Years of experience as a journalist, combined with a contrarian streak, make him interested in getting to the bottom of wine stories, cast- ing a critical eye on conventional wisdom in the process. f r e n c h o a k d o m i n o s P a r c d ' a c t i v i t é s d e s B e r t r a n g e s - 5 8 4 0 0 L a C h a r i t é - s u r - L o i r e - F r a n c e T e l . + 3 3 3 8 6 6 9 4 3 7 9 | F A X + 3 3 3 8 6 6 9 6 7 4 7 | w w w . t o n n e l l e r i e - e r m i t a g e . c o m Caroline Hoogenboom Napa - Sonoma Cell. (707) 364-6334 caroline@ermitageusa.com Amy Lee Oregon - Washington Central coast of California Cell. (509) 995-2771 amy@ermitageusa.com Vincent Garry Sales Director Cell. (707) 225-2105 vincent@ermitageusa.com Office: Tel: (707) 224-2377 Fax: (707) 224-2390 1285 Foothill Blvd Cloverdale, CA 95425