The nobility of oak
Wooden barrels or casks have been used since
time immemorial, as a medium or container for
transporting wine. Pliny the Elder mentions it in
his writings, crediting the Celts with inventing them
for transporting not only wine but all kinds of
merchandise.
With the arrival of the Romans, who used the
amphora, the wooden barrel was adopted for the
same purposes. As they pursued their conquests,
they took it with them to all the wine producing
regions bordering the Mediterranean. In turn they
learned the trade and skill of cooperage.
During the 18th century it was
used as a container for marine transport. This is where the term
"tonnage" came from as a loading capacity for
ships, referring to the number of "tuns" or barrels
that the ship could carry.
One of our coopers making a barrel bottom
Until well into the 20th century, a whole range of products, such as oil, salted fish, salt, sugar, etc., were stored and carried in wooden barrels From the 50s-60s onwards, other materials — especially stainless steel — replaced wood, which only survives through its use in maturing wines.
The standard size for a barrel is 225 litres, dictated by its suitability for transport. Latterly this size has been used in Bordeaux where it is considered to be the best because of the ratio of surface area in contact between the wine and the wood, having a positive effect on the transfer of flavours. This is the so-called "bordelesa" barrel, while the Burgundy barrel has a capacity of 300 litres.
Its use has become widespread over time and nowadays in Rioja it is a mandatory size that dictates the maturing time to be considered before the wine reaches the market as "Crianza", "Reserva" or "Gran Reserva".
Of course oak barrels are not just containers to store wine: they play an active part in the development and maturity of its organoleptic potential. Other woods, used, such as chestnut, elm or cherry have been completely superseded by oak, because of its unsurpassable properties: physical resistance to filtration, elasticity, watertightness, resistance to microbial development (which makes it more hygienic), etc.
Setting aside the many intrinsic features of each part of the wine (variety, degree of alcohol, acidity, phenolic composition, etc), the barrel does not involve simply contact with the wood. There are many factors that make the wine-wood relationship one of the most complicated selection problema, decisive in the difficult art of developing high-quality wines. Among the most important are: origin, age, curing or drying the oak; cutting the thickness of the stays; shaping the barrel; joining the staves; type of toasting; washing the new barrels; plugging; filling; racking; environmental conditions in the winery; lifetime of the barrel.
Ageing in oak gives charisma to Rioja wines; granting them great distinction among those from other wine and grape producing areas around the world. In this regard, Rioja has the highest concentration of barrels in the world (939,454 units of 225 litres for maturing wine on 31.12.2000). In our bodegas alone we have 15,000 units.