Your personal blend of fortified can be a luxurious addition to any home. With a little time and attention, you can meld your special ingredients into a complex mixture that you can sip with satisfaction.
This article follows on from Barrel Care Part 1: How to Start a Fortified Keg and answers common questions we get asked about how to maintain a quality fortified blend throughout the barrel’s life.
What do I fill my barrel with?
Wines that mature in wooden barrels experience what is known as “oxidative” aging. They tend to lose colour quite quickly. They also lose volume to evaporation (commonly called the angel’s share), leaving behind a wine that is slightly more viscous. The base wine you choose will depend on your taste preference. Fortified wines made from different grape varieties produce different flavour profiles ranging from aromatic, floral and sweet to spicy and nutty.
There are three types of fortified available that suit barrel ageing; ruby, tawny, and white styles and they all have unique features, colours and flavours.
Ruby
Ruby is brightly coloured red, light brown or purple and is a youthful style, ideal for freshening up over-oaked or excessively aged barrel wine. It can be a recent vintage or a blend of 2-3 vintages. Different grape varieties will yield different flavour profiles.
Grenache – red berry fruits, sweet spice, confection
Mataro (Mouvedre) – blackcurrant, perfumed, aniseed
Tawny
Made from red grapes and aged in wooden barrels to give gradual exposure to air and evaporation. Wood exposure imparts mellow golden-brown colours, raisin and “nutty” flavours. Liebichwein offer two popular tawny blends ready to enjoy now or further age in your own barrel. Tawny’s can be blended with other vintages and are ready to drink immediately and remain stable after opening.
Ron’s Blend – average 3 years old, youthful & smooth
Ben’s Blend – more wood age up to 5 years, rich & ripe
White Port
Tawny-style but made from white grapes offer a softer and sweeter finish. This is the wine style that got Ron hooked on fortified winemaking in the 60’s!
Muscat – orange, musk, floral
Frontignac – tropical, musk, honey
Semillon – dates, toffee, nutty, honey
Where do I buy bulk fortified for my keg?
Liebichwein of course! We have built up a strong reputation for selling bulk fortifieds over the last 20 years. Ron is a master fortified blender which is a dying art in the wine trade. We grows grapes especially for fortified production so we let them ripen slowly and make sure they are the last ones picked during vintage when the Baume has reached at least 15?Baume. A hot Aussie summer really suits fortified winemaking. Each year we make a fresh vintage of different varieties which are eventually blended with small amounts of our old family stocks dating far back into the 1920’s.
Youthful Tawny made from Grenache is the base for Ruby (little or no oak), Ron’s and Ben’s blend. We also stock Muscat, Frontignac and Semillon as individual varietal wines. We find that an approximate age of 3-5 years makes a suitable starter for a home barrel.
We sell all bulk fortifieds in inert plastic containers in sizes 2L, 5L, 10L and 20L. They cost a few extra dollars and are reusable and recyclable. Customers are welcome to bring their own cleaned containers into cellar door. In the early days of selling in bulk we would get requests to fill all kinds of containers and drink bottles!
Can I keep fortified in plastic containers?
Once you have filled or topped up your keg and you still have left over, there is no drama in leaving the excess in the plastic container until you need it. As the wines are already fortified and semi-oxidised they do not pick up any taints or off-flavours. Just store the container out of direct sunlight and below 30?C.
How do I maintain my barrel?
Remember from Part 1 that wine develops more rapidly in smaller barrels so the first fill should be for a short time (1-4 weeks). Keep in mind that the oak source also has an effect on flavour and will be a lot stronger in a new barrel. You can taste test your personal blend weekly at first, making adjustments to the addition to help achieve desired result. If you notice strong oaky flavours, you can bottle off half of the keg and top it up with young wine (unoaked or lightly oaked is preferable as the barrel does the work). Experimenting with different batches and refilling at different times allows you to blend wine to your liking.
KEY TIPS
- Keep your barrel topped up when 1/3 full
- Be patient – it may take a couple of months before the desired taste is achieved
What about adding a mix of wines or spirits?
Our personal view is never to mix fortified and spirit such as cognac or brandy in a barrel. A good base fortified already contain spirit, either brandy or neutral grape spirit and anything stronger than these is very difficult to blend out if you change your mind.We believe that the only things to add, if you wish to blend and tinker, are oak and age. Complexity is added by ageing slowly in oak and adding old and fresh wine.
How much aged wine can be added?
Adding quality aged fortified is a practice that we highly recommend, but the question of how much and when depends greatly on what your blend is like and the barrel type. It’s
not wise to go overboard with aged material, particularly when the barrel port is young (i.e. the initial fill of the barrel). Before adding anything at all, play with blending small amounts in your bar/shed/kitchen (20-30mL in 9L is usually plenty). As the barrel port gets
a few years on it, it can then take a greater amount of aged material.
To help give a new keg a dramatic head start on the road to complexity, Liebichwein is able to offer small quantities of very old blending stock. We call them ?rancio? premium aged fortifieds and we bottle them off in 100mL wax-sealed bottles in four different varieties; Muscat, Frontignac, Semillon and Tawny (Grenache). It’s difficult to control the urge to drink such aged and complex wines, but you will be rewarded by throwing it into your personal blend.
Can you blend for example kahluas ,tia marias with the port of your choice in the barrell, or does it need to be just ports? thankyou so much for your time , kind regards shona
Wondering if you can help me. Have a keg that obviously we forgot about for a while and the levels got low. When I checked it had been leaking at the bottom. What do I do now to make it leakproof? Do I refill it with Port or do I have to do something else first?
I have a barrel that has been in my family for around 30 years. It has contained port, to varying levels, since purchased. I have recently tested some of its contents & really enjoyed the texture & flavour. I would like some advice on maintaining a barrel of this age e.g. should I mix up or stir the contents. When last measured the volume there was a ‘sludge’ on the bottom of the barrel. Any and all advice is appreciated.
I want toput aged
bourbon into a cak but I also want the flavour of ruby port to enhance it .I cannot find an old port barrel so I thougt I could add port chips chips to the bourbon while in the cask Any help would be appreciated Thank you
Hi Ron,
I have an oak 10lt cask that’s been empty for about 10 years. I have gone through the process of rinsing and is now sitting full with water to check for leaks. I have several collector ports I’ve gathered over the years and wondering if I can blend these ports together in the cask, and if there is any issues with that.
Thanks
Hi I would like to buy some bulk port but can’t seem to find prices on your Web page. I was after a couple of the 5 or 10 l containers if delivery to Perth is possible.
Thanks
Stacey
Hi I am after bulk port for a brand new barrel I just bought! I already had a 10 litre… so I have bought myself a 100 litre keg that I need to fill! Can you please give me a price on 100 litres of bulk for my barrel.
Thankyou, jordan
I was wondering about Seppeltsfield’s practice of selling bulk wine aged yes, 3-5 years, but also selling 10, 15 and 20+ year wines for home barrelling in 5L volumes. Now obviously you’ve got a commercial interest in finding faults in their method, but I have heard the advice of ‘a few weeks/months max’ for home cellaring, especially on first fill. But surely there’s no point to barrelling a 20 yr old tawny (and since the success of their 100 yr tawny and other old-age fortifieds for such a short period?
Is there a workable way of trying to home-barrel a 40yr tawny from a 20, or are these older bulk ports just a way of extracting money (though still a great value if just drank the 20yr old straight away instead of barelling!)?
I’ve had great results as a cognac fan who likes, but can’t often afford, the XO variety, by using top-rated but cheap VSOPs and aging at home for 10 years – the relative quality will drop, but getting an 85-89 quality XO for the cost of a 94-rated VSOP makes cognac much more financially viable.
But of course, that’s a spirit, completely different production processm and port is a completely different drink. Nonetheless, Seppelt’s 100yr old tawny indicates that there must be SOME way of aging ports for a mere 20 years at home (even if, like Seppelt, you have to dump vast quantities of port on the market in order to find a batch that can handle a century in the barrel). What’s your view on long-term storage in a home barrel for port – is there a way of doing it effectively?
Hello Ron and Janet,
I have just filled a 10lt tubbies port barrel with Rons blend and was interested in ordering some of the ‘rancio’ tawny 100ml to add after letting the current stock age for a couple of months. I have an order form but can’t see these on it or on the website. Is this something it would have to phone order for?
Regards
Jason
how much air space should be facilitated between the bung hole and wine level for aging a red port? I am using a 227 litre oak barrel.
Hi Ron & Janet we had a house fire back in June 2014. The house was completely destroyed (clothes drier was the cause). Unfortunately my award winning port barrel (9 litre) is all angel’s share now! It’s time to start blending again. Do you have any suggestions on getting a barrel? Tubbies at Williamstown seem competitive. What size barrel would you suggest to quickly optimise the port and would you recommend sourcing a second-hand keg?
Hope to see you soon to get some port from you. Cheers Rob
Hi Ron, I have a large hogshead of port which is in tawny stage and which I have had for 40 years. We emptied and cleaned the barrel about 16 years ago.
I have handed it over to younger family members and they are looking to source 60 litres of raw stock wine for a bottling exercise ie bottle off 60 litres and refill and probably 1.5 litres of brandy added.
Can you advise potential sources that won’t cost an arm and a leg please.
Hey guys would like to get 25 liters of Frontignac please 0424812281
Regards leevi duff
Ron
I have a port barrel about 20 litres which is probably about 1/3 to 1/2 full not sure what mix is in it as I left at a mates place for 12 months but it seems very sweet and thick.
Just wondering what you recommend to pit in it now to get it back to a nice drinking port again?
Thanks for your time.
Tom Perkins
Hello Tom,
I am not sure if I received your query. If not, please email info@www.bizeezcomms.com/liebichwein for Rons advice.
Regards
Janet Liebich
Liebichwein
Chasing a price for 10 L of tawny to refill my keg
inc postage/ freight to
biloela Qld 4715
Cheers Brett
Have a 9 litre quality timber wine barrel (Cooper) that has been unsued for approximately 5 years i.e. empty. Would like to use it again and refill and need to know correct procedure to do so. I have read barrel care part 1 and also part 2. Is this the procedure as mentioned in part 1 the process I should use. Kind Regards John Gigger
As you can see from my first comment (4.5 L) French Oak Barrel I am only a “small” volume Port consumer. I would be interested in your recommendation for the first filling of the barrel after the sugar and water treatment.
Alan
Hi, I have neglected my oak barrel for about 10 years, and on inspection I emptied a very small amount of syrup from the barrel. I read up on how to clean the barrel. I rinsed it with hot water until most of the syrup was removed, And over the course of a day I continually added hot tap water. At first it leaked straight out, but eventually it started to hold the water. I kept changing the water daily for a few days.
Am I ok to now add some port. It’s a 14l barrel, so I don’t want to fill It before I’m certain it will be ok.
Any advice would be great.
PS, reason for neglect was that I moved from Central Coast (close to Hunter Valley) to the warmer climate of Brisbane. I’ll likely be forced to buy cask port from a bottle shop rather than from a winery.
well winter is upon us and i wood like to keep it as far away as possible by supping on a good keg of port i see by your web site that you sell good quality port what price is it by the either 10 or 20 litre,also do you sell the kegs and at what shillings hoping to heer from ewe soon regards barry edwards
Hi Ron I’ve had my 14L keg for about 8 years and am on my 3rd batch of port. I blend up locally produced bulk ports from Perth region however I saw your articles on port and would like to buy some of your bulk port to top up my current blend. Could you let me know the prices including the aged small bottle. I have had some good results with adding red wine and bonding with spirit. Could you recommend some others to me. Thx Richard Szczurowski
Hi Ron I’ve had my 14L keg for about 8 years and am on my 3rd batch of port. I blend up locally produced bulk ports from Perth region however I saw your articles on port and would like to buy some of your bulk port to top up my current blend. Could you let me know the prices including the aged small bottle. I have had some good results with adding red wine and bonding with spirit. Could you recommend some others to me. Thx Richard Szczurowski
Can you tell me once you add more port how long should it be left
Hi Ron Scott here from Black Rock Victoria just purchased a new 20 L Oke Port Barrell
Was wondering where I can purchase some of your aged premium rancio fortified I’m on 0408 173 174 or the below email regards Scott Mcintosh