I think 2016 was the first year we moved our barrels from what used to be a shower room. Why the shower? Well, because it was tiled and had running water and we just didn’t have any other place where we could put them and keep them clean. The shower room seemed a logical choice.
We started barreling in 2013 and the plan was to forever stay as a small barrel program. At least that was what I told myself. I was looking forward to taking care of, talking to, comforting a couple of barrels.
Fast forward to today and we barrel age on average twenty times as much wine as we did in those first few years. Still small amounts compared to most other wine producers but, for us, a lot more than we envisioned when we started. Aging a sweet wine in barrel that has a relatively low alcohol content is a tricky business. Barrels can’t be temperature controlled and the blessing of the oak is also a challenge because of its inherent permeability and air exposure. The wine can be elevated but it is also open to risks that can ruin a wine: secondary ferments with spoilage yeasts, bacteria that alter the flavour or simply ferments that consume all the residual sugar and leaves you with a wine high in alcohol and low on balance. The natural acidity in ice cider does not do great unless there’s a balanced residual sugar to match.
We started out with one 225 litre barrel (or barrique, hence the name) in 2013 which came in at a 1000 or so bottles. When we released it, to everyone’s surprise I think, those bottles sold out in less than 30 days, qualifying the product for permanent shelf space with the Swedish monopoly. Those spots on the shelf are coveted things and so once we were in we just had to go with it and buy more barrels. In 2014 and 2015 I think we were still jamming 225 litre barrels into that locker room but in 2016 we just couldn’t work’em any more.
The shower had done its part.
By then we’d been forced to rent a second unit adjacent to our first and so now we suddenly had the space. The 2016, as far as I remember it, was a good vintage. Things were smooth in the cidery and we had hit our stride when it came to cellar work. This is the year we planted our first orchards as well. We could discern on the horizon what identity, philosophy, terroir, we would pursue.
Tasting the 2016 barrique now, it has developed well. It was a touch higher on acidity relative to its residual sugar at bottling but that has served it well in aging. It is in many ways still well defined, and that’s down to that extra acidity.
You can drink and enjoy it now but you will also be able to keep it for years to come. This is, regardless of when you drink it, very much a wine of meditation. A comfortable chair, an open fire and possibly a sleeping dog.