The origin of the base material, the wood, plays an important role, but so does the cooper’s signature.
The toasting, i.e. exposing the inside of the barrels to heat or a flame, is particularly decisive for the taste, and the volume of the barrels also has a great influence. It is a fascinating subject that I recently discussed with several Luxembourg winegrowers.
“This is a 2023 Chardonnay, a vintage that we greatly appreciated this summer, but unfortunately it rained a lot during the harvest. Some varieties withstood it better than others,” explains Henri Ruppert.
The Schengen winegrower is a pioneer of barrel ageing and offers several wines marketed with the labels ‘aged in barrels’ or ‘aged in large oak barrels’.
For the rather fragile 2023 vintage, the winegrower Henri Ruppert from Schengen only used barrels that had already been used to store white wines in previous years – no new wood © Photo credit: Claude François
Avoid overly pronounced woody notes
“The Chardonnay acclimatised well in 2023, it remained healthy until the end and we were able to harvest it with 13 percent alcohol by volume,” notes the Schengen winegrower with satisfaction. He adds that it is essential when you want to age a wine in a barrel, ‘because there is no point in putting a wine that is too fine in a barrel, because it would then be overwhelmed by the wood’.
For the rather fragile 2023 vintage, Ruppert did not use new wood, so he only used barrels in which white wines had already been stored in previous years.
Indeed, the primary objective is not primarily to give the wine notes of vanilla and roasting. It is rather the micro-oxygenation – the enrichment in oxygen on contact with the wood – which ensures “a certain smoothness”, Ruppert explains.
Contact with the wine lees is also particularly important, as it gives a sensation of roundness in the mouth. But the wood also releases tannins, which enable the wine to “keep much longer”, Ruppert assures me.
Red and white wines in barrels of 228 to 500 litres
Barrels of 228 litres, the classic Burgundy size, and larger barrels of 300 and 350 litres are stored in Henri Ruppert’s barrel cellar in Schengen © Photo credit: Claude François
In his barrel cellar, he shows me his barrels in the classic Burgundian format of 228 litres, in which he ages Pinot Noir, among others. Some of his fine white wines, Auxerrois, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay, are aged in larger barrels of 300 or 350 litres: “The advantage is that the wine comes into less contact with the surface of the wood, which gives it a more discreet vanilla flavour”.
Ruppert’s largest barrels hold 500 litres. They are home to his noble Pinot Noir Ma Tâche: “The large format allows for 18 months of storage. This reduces the influence of the wood and the wine can develop quietly without absorbing strong woody notes.”
Most of the barrels used in Luxembourg are made from wood from the forests of central France, and also from the Vosges. “European oak generally gives off fewer vanilla notes than American oak,” Ruppert points out.
Barrels with wood from Luxembourg forests
Benoît Kox shares this observation. This winegrower, who a few years ago settled with his son Claude in Goldbierg near Remich, also works in the import of barrels. He has been working for a long time with the cooper Vicard in Cognac, who makes some wooden barrels from the Luxembourg forests.
Remich winemaker Benoît Kox cooperates with cooper Vicard in Cognac to make wooden barrels from Luxembourg forests © Photo credit: Claude François
Kox has them made for his own needs, but also for colleagues. “Because our oak trees grow in sandy soil, they grow slowly and are therefore perfectly suited to wine barrels,” he explains.
According to him, strong woody notes are no longer in fashion today: “Toasted notes should no longer dominate, which is why we are once again using more and more large barrels, as was the case in the past – this trend is making a comeback.”
Large formats of 2,700 and 3,800 litres
Even larger formats are hidden in the Domaines Vinsmoselle wineries in Wellenstein. Pinot gris, Pinot Blanc and sometimes Chardonnay slumber in 2,700-litre barrels.
“Thanks to the large surface area, they are only slightly influenced by the wood, but above all they become creamier and develop interesting aromas,” emphasises technical director Bernd Karl. However, he believes that it is difficult to age Rieslings in wood, adding that “it’s a matter for specialists”.
In the cellars of Caves Bernard-Massard in Grevenmacher are 22 barrels, each containing 3,800 litres of base wine for crémant © Photo credit: Claude François
Nonetheless, it is possible to make them even more impressive. For example, twenty-two 3,800-litre barrels are stored on the premises of Caves Bernard-Massard in Grevenmacher. They are filled with crémant base wines, 80,000 litres for more than 100,000 bottles. Pretty impressive!
“Twelve years ago, we aged the first wines in barrels and we had good experiences,” recalls technical director Stephan Krämer.
“The imperfections are chiselled away, the wines become rounder and the crémants also keep better thanks to the oxygenation in the wood,” says Krämer.
The technical director of Domaines Vinsmoselle, Bernd Karl, in the Wellenstein wineries, where Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc, among others, are aged in 2,700-litre barrels © Photo credit: Claude François
Cellar master Florian Michels adds that barrel ageing “allows us to compensate for variations due to the vintage and the climate, so that the slightly less ripe raw material is rounded out in the wood”.
Best vintages
The best vintages for wines aged in wood are 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2024.
This is the case for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Auxerrois. In very hot years like 2018, these wines are often heavy, because they are generally vinified in a very dry way and there is almost no sugar left, but a lot of alcohol. There are also some great successes in white wines, especially Chardonnay, in the 2023 vintage.