South Africa Wine Technical Yearbook 2025

MARCH

RONALD DE BRUIJN, PIXABAY

Guidelines for the management of barrel storage rooms By Pieter Badenhorst The management of barrel storage

• The spacing between barrel stacks should be wide enough for a person to walk comfortably between the stacks. This simplifies the identification of barrels (the heads must be clearly visible), as well as sampling and stock control. • Barrel stacks should not be stacked too high, as this can make it difficult to monitor barrels. • The same principles apply to the storage of full, new and empty barrels. Analyses and monitoring Continuous testing of the wine is imperative to ensure that it ages as expected. Wine samples enable winemakers to detect changes in the wine’s aroma, flavour and texture, which in turn makes the timely identification of problems possible. Pay attention to the following: • Samples should be taken at regular scheduled times during the maturation process, but the frequency may depend on the type of wine and the maturation goals. Most cellars perform analyses on their barrels monthly or every two months. • If the batches are small enough, a sample can be drawn from each barrel. If the batches are larger, for example, 20 barrels in a batch, in order to save time and money, only half of the barrels can be sampled. • Barrel analyses should always be compared to the analyses of the original tank they were filled from. • The most important analyses that should be monitored are the free and total sulphur, as well as the volatile acidity. A few barrels per batch should also be tasted regularly, as analyses only tell one-half of the story. Wine

rooms is intended to create a stable and controlled environment for wine to age. This article provides a few of the most important guidelines to be followed. The stacking of barrels The stacking of barrels can influence the quality of the wine, as well as the effectiveness of space utilisation in the storage room. The following aspects are fundamental: • Barrels sharing a cradle must have the same form and size. If not, the cradle placed on top of such barrels will lie in a skewed position. This can cause barrels to fall, leading to wine losses and injuries. • The barrels should also be centred on the rack so that equal parts of the barrel ends extend over the rack on both sides. This will also ensure that the rack placed on top of the barrels lies even. • If more than two layers of barrels are stacked on top of each other, care should be taken to ensure that the stack is 100% upright. This can be done by closely monitoring the stack from the front and sides. Forklift drivers stacking barrels do not necessarily perform this task, thus it is advisable to have a second person on the ground during stacking to check that everything is sound and so limit the risk of barrels falling over. • Where there is only one barrel on a rack, the rack is unbalanced, with a high risk of falling over. The solution is to permanently convert about 3 - 5% of barrel racks in the cellar to be able to hold just one barrel right in the centre.

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TECHNICAL YEARBOOK 2025