The monty has been left on its gross-lees (left over yeast from the ferment) now for two months. It has been important to check the wine for reductivity (search this blog using the search function for more info on reductivity) regularaly. When you put your nose in the barrel it smells just fantastic. The wood is four years old, so imparts little flavour, the wine smells rich, pruney, coffee like and spicy, no sign of jammyness. Some people like to top their wines weekly but we have only topped our monty twice over two months. Each topping (using Damien's monty..thanks Damien:) )we have added circa 2.5 Litres of wine.
You need to top barrels because the wine evaporates. The rate of evaporation is a function of wood porosity, temperature and humidity. The more humid the room, the less the evaporation. Damien's barrle storage is a stable 22 degrees C and humidity around 40%, so evap is slow.
Barrel maturation is adding richness to the wine and is very slowly oxidising the wine...but good oxidation. Low levels of exposure of red wine to oxygen allows tannins to soften, colour to be stabilised and therefore the future potenital of the wine to oxidise in bottle is reduced, prolonging the cellaring potentia of the wine.
Malolactic fermentation (use blog search tool for more info) is finished but a slightly milky aroma persists in the wine, so we have decided to rack the wine from its sediment (lees etc) in two weeks time. At this stage the wine will have minor levels of sulfur added, to protect the wine from microbial (yeast or bacterial) spoilage and oxidation and will be returned to a clean barrel.
You need to top barrels because the wine evaporates. The rate of evaporation is a function of wood porosity, temperature and humidity. The more humid the room, the less the evaporation. Damien's barrle storage is a stable 22 degrees C and humidity around 40%, so evap is slow.
Barrel maturation is adding richness to the wine and is very slowly oxidising the wine...but good oxidation. Low levels of exposure of red wine to oxygen allows tannins to soften, colour to be stabilised and therefore the future potenital of the wine to oxidise in bottle is reduced, prolonging the cellaring potentia of the wine.
Malolactic fermentation (use blog search tool for more info) is finished but a slightly milky aroma persists in the wine, so we have decided to rack the wine from its sediment (lees etc) in two weeks time. At this stage the wine will have minor levels of sulfur added, to protect the wine from microbial (yeast or bacterial) spoilage and oxidation and will be returned to a clean barrel.
