13 Jun “After years of testing, we know exactly which barrels, woods and cooperages we want to work with”.
Barrels play a fundamental role in the ageing of wines. They provide unique nuances and textures that can completely change their organoleptic characteristics. It is therefore very important to know how to choose the right type of wood and the right cooperage. A priori, it might seem that all barrels should be the same, but this is not the case. There are many differences in nuances between one cooperage and another: the same wine aged in two similar barrels but from two different cooperages results in totally different wines.
Over the years, at Bodegas Dominio de Berzal we have carried out many tests until we found the wood profile that best suited each of our wines. Thanks to this, today we know exactly which suppliers we want to work with, which are more or less a dozen.
Our barrels consist of 450 barrels of 225 litres, which we use for our wines Dominio de Berzal Crianza (French and American oak used and new 50/50), Dominio de Berzal Selección Privada (new French oak) and Dominio de Berzal 7 Varietales (new French oak). But in addition to these, of a standard size, we also have 14 500-litre barrels that provide less wood to the wines. We use them in Dominio de Berzal Graciano (new French oak), Las Laderas de Jose Luis (used French oak) and Dominio de Berzal Parcelas Garnacha Blanca (new and used French oak 50/50).
As is well known, the nuances that one and the other type of oak contribute to the wines are different. For example, French oak gives more roasted, cocoa, mocha, coffee, pastry… While American oak, a more tannic oak than French oak, gives vanilla, coconut…
So far, we have only worked with these two oaks, but our intention is to innovate in this aspect as well and to introduce new woods little by little to see how our wines evolve with them. For example, for the next vintage we plan to try acacia wood for the whites and, in the future, we are also going to experiment with oak from Romania and the Caucasus. These are small steps that we want to take, but slowly, so that these new woods do not clash with our existing line of wines.
Experimentation is always present. We also experiment with the ageing times and the age of the barrels, lengthening or shortening times depending on the wine we want to achieve, and sometimes using new barrels to provide more wood or barrels of various uses so that the contribution is less. In one way or another, innovation and development always accompany us at Bodegas Dominio de Berzal.
We consider ourselves to be innovative without losing our identity and we seek to improve every day, gathering the wisdom of the past, passed down from generation to generation. Traditions that have been shared in our family for more than a century.