Barrels and barriques Shut in the cellar The barrique (a small wooden barrel which generally holds 225 litres) is more than a delicate winemaking technique; it is becoming a fashion, with its supporters and its opponents. The long history of partnering wine and wood has ancient roots; the Gauls invented barrels to transport liquids. Over the years, wood became more than a means of transport and became instrumental in winemaking and ageing. It was found that it could give the wine many of its constituents: its tannins (called gallics), aromatic aldehydes (which bring new aromas), non-phenolic odorants (responsible for the taste known as 'boisé' or woody). The wine thereby undergoes a chemical change which refines the bouquet and the colour matures, but the level of tannins also changes. The relationship between wood and wine is influenced by a number of different factors: the size of the barrel (the larger it is the less contact it has with the wine and therefore the less the exchange of properties), the type of wood and the toasting (a delicate operation involving briefly burning the wood to 'fix' the aromatic substances and extracts which will be released into the wine) and, last but not least, the character of the wine it contains. Not all wines are robust enough to allow for ageing in wood. As we have seen, a barrel aged wine acquires special aromas from the wood which are pleasant if correctly dosed, but may be unpleasant if the wine acquires too much of them or if the wine does not have enough bouquet for it to be balanced. The result can become what many people call 'carpenter's wine'; bottles where the perfume of the wood overpowers the aromas of the wine. It should also be borne in mind that barrels do not work miracles; no mediocre wine can be made into an excellent wine by ageing it in wood, just as an excellent wine can be made decidedly worse if the ageing is not carefully carried out.