Help with new port barrel

[Andy B]

Hi there. I'm Andrew and I love port. So much that I wanted to try my hand at the aging process. I'm not sure if I could ask this question directly to you but some information would be helpful if possible on the following scenario. I've researched far and wide but it appears all too confusing and limited.
My questions are as follows. I brought a new oak barrel that's charcoaled. I understand to wash it out well several times and let the timber swell. However what I don't understand is this. I like tawny port taste. I'm planning on buying Ferreira tawny and Ferreira ruby port. Now I need advice as follows.

Can I swirl a tawny port to get those flavors in my barrel initially to build character ? Or should I be using a ruby port to line the barrel instead? I know I have to spill it out initially due to charcoal. My thinking was to speed up the process a little faster in flavour and character.

Then I was planning on adding a new bottle of tawny port and add the ruby to this barrel until full? ( I have a 15ltr barrel, was going to add 750ml tawny, 14ltr balance of ruby and leave it for around 5-10 years to mature adding extra ruby when necessary to top up from evaporation). Can I mix these 2 together or not recommended?

My final question is will this age correctly in my barrel over time to give me the very sweet, almost golden syrup colour that I want to achieve from this mix? I was told that a tawny does not age even if put back into a barrel. Is this correct?

I know there are a lot of questions here but any advice or person who could help me to understand my port requirements would be greatly appreciated. I thank you for your time in reading this. Thanks again and cheers Andrew.

[Moses Botbol]

Initial thought is that the wine will be overly oaky tasting, but that is just a hunch with a barrel so small. I would also use ruby port. I have never done this so I am just shooting from the hip...

[Eric Ifune]

A new 15 liter charred oak barrel? It sounds like it's designed for whiskey. The first wine, or spirits, in the barrel will get very oaky, especially if you leave it in there for years. My guess, is that'll the wine will become undrinkable. Also, for long aging of wine, you need wine of a minimum requisite quality. Are you talking about a basic ruby and tawny? I doubt these would improve much. A couple of things to try if you continue. Wash out the barrel repeatedly with hot, salty water. Wineries sometimes do this to mitigate the harshness of new oak. Try a better quality base wine, maybe a 10 year old Tawny or a high quality Ruby Reserve.

[Thomas V]

I would suggest when you have the barrel ready to buy a good 2011 unfiltered LBV for this purpose.

Also make sure you buy enough so you can top the barrel off over the years. Depending on the humidity in your storage place the angels share would be around 3-5 % per year. Cause you do not want to have a to high amount of oxygen inside the barrel as it will oxidate to rapidly.

If you are really serious about this I think you would be best of mailing with someone in the trade that could offer you some advice perhaps? Oscar Quevedo comes to mind..

A thought. A more easy approach to this would be to make a Garrafeira experiment where you buy a 10 or 15 litre demijohn like bottle (dark) and store it there in stead. Would eliminate the potential issue with a too young oak barrel that releases to much oak/burnt/vanilla flavours.

[Moses Botbol]

A thought. A more easy approach to this would be to make a Garrafeira experiment where you buy a 10 or 15 litre demijohn like bottle (dark) and store it there in stead. Would eliminate the potential issue with a too young oak barrel that releases to much oak/burnt/vanilla flavours.

This is what I would do. Especially that you could buy a 2011 LBV and eventually have something special.

[Eric Menchen]

I am not a winemaker, but I do have a lot of experience aging stuff in barrels--mostly beer in ~60 gallon (US) wine barrels and 53 gallon (US) whiskey and Bourbon barrels. I've also aged stuff in an occasional fresh barrel, and a few smaller (20-40 liter) barrels that had gin and rum in them. And my latest project is barrel aging of cocktails in a tiny 1l barrel. Anyway, I've got a lot of thoughts on this...

1. As others have said, you are going to get a lot of oak out of that barrel, way more than would typically be appropriate for a Port.
a. Most Port is not aged in fresh oak. Some isn't aged in wood at all, but the tawny generally is. It is aged in wood that has been used and reused many many times, and in some cases this wood is chestnut, not oak.
b. Most Port is aged in much larger vessels than your barrel, from huge foudres/tonéis/balseiros down to pipas (~420 liters) and sometimes "regular wine barrels" which are still ~225 liters. You have a lot more surface area to impart flavor.

2. Charcoaled is also a different flavor. It is wonderful, but not the same as toasted. I can't recall seeing charred barrels like Bourbon barrel char level in the Douro, but I could be wrong on this. I recall seeing lots of "MT" barrels, which is medium toast. Of course most of those were for non-fortified wines. The Port was in old dark barrels that just had chalk scribbles on them.

3. That surface area is also going to give a lot of oxidation. To make a tawny you want some oxidation, but there is also reduction and settling out of tannins going on at the same time. Aging in that small barrel may throw the balance of these processes out of whack. Of course, you are going to start with less tannins too, so this could get interesting.

I like the LBV suggestion. I would worry that a basic ruby just won't have enough going for it to age. I'm going to slightly contradict myself from #3, but I think you want at least a little tannin in the wine even though you want some of it to settle out as well. The basic ruby will have been filtered thoroughly. You can get filtered and unfiltered LBV.

[Mike K.]

My knowledge is primarily in whiskey. I would proceed very cautiously. Many folks like to buy a similar size charred oak barrel, add some inexpensive whiskey, and age it for fun. With a barrel of that size, the aging period is months, not years. It will gain oak flavor very fast, which is likely not what you are after. Also, most 'craft' distillers these days use small barrels which invariably imparts a 'sawdust' flavor. If you really want to use the barrel, folks recommend flushing it out first with grain alcohol.

Cheers!
Mike