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WINEMAKING Highlights • Winemakers producing small quantities of high-priced wines say that making the right barrel choice can differentiate your wine in a competitive market. • Wines & Vines conducted a survey to ask winemakers about their decision processes and priorities when choosing barrels. • Vintners making wine at higher price points are generally less interested in new features than in quality craftsmanship, clean materials and tight grain. Barrels with a longer toast time can lengthen the taste of a wine from the mid palate through the finish. Fire-bent and water-bent staves have shown marked differences in affecting the wine's tannin structure. Bradley said he believes the fire-bending process volatizes some of the oak tannins, while staves bent with water retain the oak's short and simple tannin chains. He said using barrels with water-bent staves could help soften a wine with sharp or coarse tannins. "It's a great tool for when you have to pick earlier because of rain." Bradley was frank in his respect for the advice of cooperage representatives when making his barrel decisions. In February 2011, Bradley gathered a group of barrel reps together in the Repris cave for a tasting and good-natured, lively discussion. "These guys, they're all friends at some level and they all feel very strongly about what they represent," he said. "We lean heavily on those guys to steer us in the right direction." The goal is not any one particular barrel or style. For Bradley, it's adding multiple levels of flavor and structure to the wine. "A way to layer flavor was to add coopers, because they are just so different," he said. "It's a mole (sauce) or a great curry that has 30 to 40 ingredients: None of them are dominant. It's a like a great symphony." Sojourn specializes in vineyard-designated Pinot Noir, and Bradley said he picks barrels to exemplify the characteristics that make those vineyards unique. Rogers Creek Vineyard is situated near the peak of the Peta- luma Gap and fully exposed. Bradley said the area is "brutally cold" and almost always buffeted by strong winds. The vines, all Pommard clones, produce grapes exhibiting a "gaminess" that Bradley said pairs well with wood from Bertrange forest and in Dargaud & Jaegle barrels. Bradley said he uses mainly French oak and prefers Francois Freres and Louis Latour for Pinot Noir. For Sojourn's wine sourced from a vineyard near Annapolis on the Sonoma Coast, Bradley said it often showcases "exotic, almost tropical notes" that pair well with Jupilles forest oak. Finding the right match Dave Lattin, winemaker at 10,000-case Kuleto Estate Winery in St. Helena, Calif., said he has a "variety of coopers in the arse- nal." Lattin said the winery's fruit has a long harvest period of 30-50 days, and he likes to have barrels that can work with fruit picked at each stage of that period. For fruit brought in early, Lattin said he likes a barrel that can "tame" the tannins. Fruit that comes in later, with softer flavors WINES & VINES OCTOBER 2012 31 and a higher pH, may need barrels with a higher toast to bring back some of the fruit's youthful acidity, he said. Lattin sources from five different coopers. He said multiple vendors give him a range of opinions and styles. Lattin said one could generalize a cooper's style when compar- ing multiple barrels from the same lot to those made by a dif- ferent cooper. "It's when you drill down to barrel by barrel that you see vast differences among barrels from the same cooper," he said. "It's when making small blends, as we often do, when this becomes an issue to accept, and I readily accept it." According to the survey results, the cooper is the most impor- tant factor for winemakers when choosing barrels, followed by the source of wood and then price. The degree of toasting, grain and the length of wood seasoning were the most important bar- rel features that contribute to wine flavor. More than 40% of those who responded to the survey said a barrel trial was their preferred method to evaluate barrels, fol- lowed by recommendations from other winemakers and tasting with cooperage representatives. After making wine for more than 40 years at wineries includ- ing Chateau St. Jean, Don Van Staaveren, currently the winemak- er at Three Sticks winery in Sonoma, Calif., said he sticks with specific coopers because of good service and consistent products. He looks for all French oak, dried for 36 months or more. "I just want the tightest grain I can get," Van Staaveren said. He also likes the "longest and slowest toast," with deep penetration and no blistering. He's been happy to include a component of water-bent stave barrels because of the different tannin structure. Three Sticks produces 1,600 cases per year of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. YOUR SUCCESS IS OUR PRIORITY