Maturation of wine in cask, “Italian style”
With the rise in temperatures and the consequences in the vineyard and cellar, it becomes urgent to rethink the barrels and the Maturation of wine in cask, “Italian style”
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by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
For what regards the maturation of wine in cask, “Italian style”, we go from one exaggeration to another. After years of wines with too much wood we went to the fashion of no oak at all.
To understand which is the right way the Italian Union of Wines through the Wine Corriere has organized a survey and then a conference during the exhibition in Milan.
WOODEN TASTE: MANY SAY THEY HATE IT BUT IN REALITY IT IS NOT TRUE
The results were intriguing, stimulating and even a little embarrassing.
In fact there is a fundamental contradiction: the consumer says he appreciates one type of wine but then he buys another. He thinks he prefers dry wines but then he is more happy to put in the glass those with residual sugar. He claims to hate barriques and “Parker style” wine but then chooses the one with an oak imprint to which he is accustomed.
Contradiction that, from my experience, also affects many tasters formed in the era of late 20th century style wines.
This is not a small problem especially for wines with long aging in cask like Brunello.