Time to work in the cellar: Renewing the barrels

A cellar with lots of old barrels has itcharm, but do not be fooled by the exterior appearance, because their beauty and care is done inside: Renewal process is an extraordinary practice that at Rocca delle Macìe involves, every year a rotation of 4/5 barrels of medium or large size, from 25 to 100 hectoliters.

Thanks to the high thickness of the wood used for their construction, these barrels can withstand up to 3 interventions, allowing them to extend their life.

The operation itself is very simple but you do need a real craftsman to carry it out: it is a scraping (planing) process that removes about 1 cm of internal wood completely used up and made waterproof by the deposits of tartrates cumulated during the time of wine housing for aging.

Once restored the “new wood” , staves are lightly toasted to be able to release again the sweet tannins from the wood, after that the barrel is considered to be active again in its own function of “quality assistant” of our wines for at least some more 8/10 years.