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46 WINES&VINES July 2017 OAK BARRELS & ALTERNATIVES Does Barrel Fermentation Improve Red Wine? Three veteran winemakers offer real-life experiences with the practice By Paul Franson T hough it's common to ferment Char- donnay in oak barrels to impart tex- ture and flavor—and fermenting reds in large, upright wood casks was once standard—fermenting red wines in small oak barrels is a fairly new practice. The reason is simple: It can be a lot of work—and expensive. Winemakers either have to remove one of the barrel heads, ask an expert to do it or buy special barrels with large openings to insert berries or clusters. Emptying and cleaning the barrels is more difficult than the same opera- tion with white juice and wine. In spite of this, some winemakers are ex- perimenting with fermenting red wines in barrels for the same reasons they do for white wines: flavor, texture and complexity, not to ignore bragging rights. The practice was the subject of a discussion and tasting at the recent Wines & Vines Oak Conference held April 26 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, Calif. Moderated by the magazine's senior edi- tor, Andrew Adams, the session featured three winemakers with varied experience fermenting red wine in wood: Bob Blue, director of winemaking and winery opera- tions at Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland, Calif.; David Jeffrey of Calluna Vineyards in the Chalk Hill AVA of Sonoma County, and Andy Schweiger of Schweiger Vineyards and Winery in St. Helena, Calif. Blue noted that Fetzer used to do in-barrel red fermentations under Dennis Martin, its former winemaker. "In 1982, Diana Fetzer started (the practice) when Chardonnay fer- mentation in barrel was new. She thought it might work well for Pinot Noir, too, and they did it for 22 years." The company had an advantage, as it owned a cooperage then, too. Blue presented wines that are components of Sanctuary Pinot Noir from Bien Nacido Vine- yards in the Santa Maria Valley (Santa Barbara County, Calif.) fermented in open-top barrels. It contrasted two lots: a Pommard clone planted in 1973 and clone 667 planted in 2002. Since some of the winery's workers knew how to work with barrels, they removed one barrelhead without damage; Blue said it took about 20 minutes. The grapes were picked at night and arrived with dry ice chilling the clean, whole berries, which were used to fill barrels and stainless steel. A bucket of dry ice was added to both stain- less steel and open-top barrels. Grapes from the Pommard clone started at 27.2° Brix with TA of 6.8 g/L, and the 667 clone measured 28.3° Brix and 6.3 g/L. They corrected the must to 24.5° Brix with water and TA to about 7.7 g/L. The barrels were inoculated after a three-day cold soak, but the tanks started fermenting spontaneously five days after heating and peaked at 85° F. The barrels reached 0.8 g/L residual sugar at nine days and were tipped to extract the must and grapes for draining and pressing. The tank took 12 days to reach 0.5 g/L of sugar. Both lots were pressed in a Marzola bas- ket press. The tank lots went into clean bar- rels (some new), while the barrels used for fermenting were cleaned to remove flour paste after they were emptied and had the REBECCA ARNN David Jeffrey of Calluna Vineyards discusses barrel fermentation.