Why are oak barrels so popular in winemaking?
George Ritchie Baltimore, Maryland The answer is part tradition, part style, and part consumer expectation. Barrels have served as containers for all sorts of goods for more than a thousand years. Herodotus describes wine from Armenia being shipped to Babylon in ancient Mesopotamia. The early Roman Empire learned about cooperage technology from the European Celts, discovering that these durable and easily transported containers held oil, tar, grains, and other goods and didn’t break as frequently as the Roman clay amphorae. As the Romans spread viticulture and winemaking throughout their burgeoning empire, the technology of barrel-making took firm hold. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, coopered containers held ale, cheese, water, meat, almost anything. Oak, with its tight pores, straight grain, and neutral flavor, lent itself well to barrel making and food storage. Oak vats, puncheons, and barrels, which when full of liquid swell up and create a tight seal, became the obvious choice
