WAYANA is our wine house operating in Kadıköy, Istanbul. Serving over 400 types of Turkish wine in its menu, WAYANA works hard to spread the wine culture with regular wine tastings and rich web content.
Movies and comics play an important role in visualizing what we read. Thanks to the images we have recorded in our visual memory, we owe the appearance of large wooden barrels in our minds when we encounter the term winery to this orientation. The barrels on the ship's decks and in the hold in pirate movies are other examples. All these records have already made us accept that the wine is stored and transported in wooden barrels.
Essentially, when viewed as a form, the barrel is a practical solution that can be easily rolled and changed when tilted on its side, and when it is placed vertically, the sediment of the wine settles to the bottom over time and ensures that the wine taken from it is free of sediment. However, although this information is historically correct, it is no longer up to date. The barrel has a distinctive place in today's wine world.
When we look at the historical records, Herodotus mentions the union of wine and barrel for the first time and states that wine from the Caucasus was brought to Mesopotamia in barrels made from palm trees. The use of wooden barrels for storing and transporting wine becomes widespread in the Roman period. The barrel found in Pompeii is the most concrete example unearthed. The organic structure of wood has caused examples from ancient times to succumb to time and not reach the present day. However, the transportation of wine made with amphorae was replaced by wooden barrels about two thousand years ago, and using amphorae for wine business were left behind for good.
As a result of the change that wine has undergone, especially in the last hundred years, the position of the wooden barrel in the world of wine has undergone a radical change. The task of storing and transporting has almost completely disappeared, and it has been replaced by a more prestigious position in the production process of quality wines, which affects the aroma and flavor of the wine. So much so that the aging of wines in barrels has become a multiplier that increases the quality and raises the price. What features make the barrels achieve to upgrade the stored wine?
Once the fermentation is completed, the time that the wine will spend in the wooden barrel, provides the most ideal natural environment in which the wine will continue to develop. The oak flavor that seeps into the wine from the barrels during this development process adds an aromatic depth to the wine. But another effect as important as this direct aroma transfer is seen during the maturation of the wine in the barrel by meeting with oxygen. Even if the amount is small, the wines that evaporate at regular intervals from the barrels that are closed and placed in place to rest are discharged by opening the barrel lids. During this discharge, the contact of the wine with the fresh oxygen entering the barrel causes the distinctive aromas of the grapes to soften, the sharpness of the tannin molecules to be brought together and the colors of the white wines to become darker. All quality wines, provided that they are not sparkling, owe their ideal position before ripening in the bottle to the time they spend in the barrel.
The role of barrels in wine production is now quality-oriented. Every step in the wine's long journey, which begins with the harvest, contributes to its development in different ways. As we can see, the wine service, which started with the storage and transportation duties of the barrel, has today left its place as a critical added value provider in obtaining competent wines.
