Toasting

TOASTING

After careful selection of wood for a barrel, the most critical step in coopering is ensuring that the barrels are toasted properly. A good toast will not correct bad wood, and a poor toast can destroy the best wood.

At Okanagan Barrel Works we naturally provide the standard range of common toasts, i.e. Light, Medium, Medium Plus and Heavy, but we are very happy to work with winemakers to refine toast characteristics that work best with their particular wine style. Longer, slower, deeper, more ‘smoke’, less ‘smoke’….almost anything is possible.

House toasts for all our barrels are classified as:

	Light	less aromatics, increased tannins
	Medium	vanillins, caramel, spice, butterscotch
	Medium Plus	oak lactones, integrated tannins, coffee, spice
	Medium Plus Extra	smoother tannins, oaky, slow release, longer ageing
	Heavy	smoky, coffee, pepper, full impact
*Burgundian Toast is available in Medium to Heavy toast formats.	Burgundian	deep toast, slightly darker finish, hint more smoke

Unless otherwise requested by the winemaker, all our American oak barrels come with toasted heads. Of course we can also provide toasted heads on French oak as well.

When you receive your new barrels, it is a very good idea to look inside the barrel to inspect the part that is actually going to impact your wine. The toast should be even up and down and all around the barrel; there should be no sanding or coopering debris in the barrel and, very importantly, there should be no blistering. Even a seemingly innocuous cracked bubble can hide a large, un-cleanable cavern.

Every cooperage has its own “house toast”. At right is an example of barrel staves from 7 different coopers – all were branded “Medium Toast”.