MANUFACTURE OF NEW OAK BARRELS

In Spanish Barrels we manufacture oak barrels in all types of measures, we have a long experience in the manufacture of the barrels, the most advanced technical means, and above all we use the certified oak wood from the best suppliers, which guarantees that everything The process of making our barrels is a success of quality.

So that wine is the quality product that we know today, oak barrels is one of the elements that has contributed the most in its production. The barrel helps us soften the texture of the wine and stabilizes it, it also helps us tannins polymerize, obtaining a more round and pleasant step in the mouth. It also contributes by adding flavor and flavoring the wine, with aromatic notes: to toast, vanilla, smoke, tobacco, chocolates, balsamic, nuts, etc. Depending on the type of oak used we get different properties, the French oak brings different sensations to the wine, such as smoked and spicy notes and length in the mouth, while the American oak provides greedy notes to coconut, banana and wider, fatty and smaller wines length.

To make an oak barrel it is necessary to cut the trunk to obtain the “staves” or pieces that form it, which in our case we use 35mm. After drying in order for the wood to lose moisture and must be done by exposing it to the sun’s rays and not using artificial methods. Then the warming of the staves would take place to allow the bending of the wood and give the characteristic domed shape. Once this was done, the inside of the staves would be burned. Finally, to assemble them.

The best whiskeys in the world grow up and age, maturing in high-quality oak barrels, such as American and French oak. As we have described our manufacturing process, associating it with wine barrels, the same process is the one we follow for whiskey barrels.

Oak wood allows two fundamental characteristics in the aging and aging of whiskey: First, that the tannins, lipids and other aromatic elements that reside in the oak interact with the whiskey with which it is in contact, and secondly, that the whiskey stored in the barrel “transpires” very slowly, being the oak in charge of regulating the interaction of the whiskey with the environment where it is stored.

The French oak brings whiskey aromas and flavors typical of nuts, citrus orange and spices, and American oak vanilla, citrus lemon and coconut.

To achieve an increase in the interaction between oak and whiskey, the barrels are burned or roasted, differentiating different levels of roasting to enhance the exchange process. Therefore, instead of storing whiskey in oak barrels, stainless steel barrels were used, none of these phenomena would occur. The stainless steel would keep whiskey unchanged, not changing its color, its aromas or its structure.

Without wood, whiskey would be more alcoholic, poorer in nuances and less seductive.