The oak wine barrel is one of the most recognizable symbols associated with wine. And why not, the wine aged in oak barrels has a unique texture, color, aroma, and flavor. Today, there are so many companies offering oak barrels for sale, so that the masses can enjoy wine aged in these barrels. But did you know that the reason due to which wine was first aged in an oak barrel was a mere accident? Romans began to spread their empire across the globe, they not only wanted to take with them weapons and food, but also wine. Wine was safer to drink than water, it provided calories to malnourished troops, and of course it provided its imbiber with an intoxicating buzz. For millennia, the clay amphora was the storage medium of choice for transporting wine. There were other civilizations, primarily in the Mesopotamian region, who used palm wood barrels, but this was the exception, not the rule.
While palm wood barrels weighed far less than clay amphorae, palm wood was quite difficult to bend. Clay offered another advantage in that it was airtight if sealed properly, though this was quite a challenge. When the Romans encountered the Gauls, they found a group of people who were using wooden barrels, often made of oak, to transport beer. By that time, Romans were facing issues with transporting the clay amphorae filled with wine. So, they found a solution to their problem with the Gauls. While other woods were used, oak was popular for several reasons. First, the wood was much softer and easier to bend into the traditional barrel shape than palm wood, thus the oak only needed minimal toasting and a barrel could be created much faster. Second, oak was abundant in the forests of continental Europe. And finally, oak, with its tight grain, offered a waterproof storage medium. The transition to wooden barrels was swift.
In less than two centuries, tens of millions of amphorae were discarded. After transporting their wines in barrels, for some time, the Romans and other societies after them began to realize that the oak barrels imparted new, pleasant qualities to the wine. The contact with the wood made the wine softer and smoother, and with some wines, it also made it better tasting. Due to the minimal toasting of the wood, wines developed additional scents such as cloves, cinnamon, allspice or vanilla, and when drunk they had additional flavors present, such as caramel, vanilla or even butter. As the practice of using oak barrels for transport continued, merchants, wine producers, and armies alike, found that the longer the wine remained inside the barrels, the more qualities from the oak would be imparted into the wine, and thus began the practice of aging wine in oak.
We at Rocky Mountain Barrel Company offer a vast collection of oak barrels for sale for you to store your wine in. Now you can enjoy delicious wine aged in our oak barrels.
