(return to Learning About Wine)
Sometimes its best to begin with the obvious:
For as long as there has been wine, there have been vessels to contain it.
For most of wine’s history, it has been transported, aged and stored in clay jugs (amphorae). Wine is still – rarely – aged in amphorae; it is occasionally made in miscellaneous vessels like concrete tanks or large glass jugs (demijohns). Overwhelmingly however, modern wine is held in oak barrels, stainless steel tanks and glass bottles.
Today, lets consider the oak barrel.
The history of the wooden barrel is sketchy; would-be artifacts have been lost to rot.
The generally accepted story begins with northern Europeans (Celts) living around the Alps (what today is Germany and France). Their environment provided timber in terrific quality (oak is exceptionally suited to barrel-making) and quantity. The general economy provided an increasing demand for storage, and transportation, containers. From all this, and a little ingenuity, the wooden barrel emerged in around 300BC.
This technology did not stay local for long... by a coincidence of history, our clever woodworker was about to be overrun by the Roman Empire. Unfortunate for the Celts... good for the spread of barrel-making.
Oak barrels remained utilitarian for centuries... but somewhere along the way, winemakers began to notice, and then exploit, the effect of barrel aging on their wines.
This understanding really matured during the 19th century.
First, this was an era of science. Spoilage and fermentation were among the many scientific issues explored by this culture, some of this research studied wine directly. In general, the habit of scientific thinking spread beyond the scientists to everyday folk... including wine makers.
Second, there was a change at sea. Ship building had long been the largest consumer of timber. During the 17th and !8th centuries, forward looking warmongers – wanting to be sure to that their nation could maintain its naval might – organized massive replanting projects. Then during the 19th century, navies shifted to building ships out of metal.
This change at sea lead to a glut of oak... the wood so suited to making barrels.
Finally, this glut of oak would have helped to increase the number of new oak barrels in wine cellars. (As we’ll discuss shortly) new oak barrels have the most profound effect on a wine; its no stretch to imagine that this would nudge winemakers to want to understand, exploit, and restrain these effects.
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Want explore some of this history?
Madeira
Oak barrels were used to transport wine long before anyone understood the effect time in barrel could have on a wine.
Legend has it that Madeira was discovered after a cancelled sale resulted in an extra long journey for a shipment of wine. To the amazement of the sailors (who had been ordered to pour the wine overboard), the time in barrel (and all that sloshing as it traversed the tropics) had dramatically improved the original wine. The ocean journey was later dropped in favour of leaving the wine (in barrel) up in the wineries’’ lofts, or out in the sun.
Madeira has slipped, from popularity, dangerously close to obscurity... but there are always a few available in our market.
Many (but not all) Madeira is sweet. For an introduction, Blandy’s 5yr-old Bual. ($22)
Retsina
I mentioned that, before oak barrels, wine was aged, transported and stored in clay amphorae. I skipped over the issue of sealing an amphorae.
A wooden barrel, with only a small “bung hole”, is fairly easily sealed with some type of stopper.
The mouth of an amphorae was larger, and more difficult to seal. Various substances were used, including various oils and resins. The use of resins probably explains “Retsina” – a white wine, flavoured with pine resin, This is popular in Greece... its a curiosity here.
Regularly available in Ontario:
Malamatinas “Retsina” ($4.50/ 500ml)
Koutakis “Retsina of Attica” ($8)
“Jose de Sousa”
To make this wine, the winemakers took a big step back in time.
The grapes are hand picked (not uncommon today), foot treaded (uncommon), and fermented in clay amphorae (extremely rare). The winemakers then hurl the wine centuries forward, and age the wine – as has become fashionable in the late 20th century – in French barriques (225-litre barrels made of French oak).
“Jose de Sousa” Jose Maria de Fonseca. Portugal
No longer in stock, but it may well reappear. ($14)