{"id":638,"date":"2017-06-29T18:22:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T18:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=638"},"modified":"2024-06-29T17:37:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T17:37:07","slug":"tasting-the-barrels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=638","title":{"rendered":"Tasting the Barrels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some time ago, we took a class at the Joseph Phelps winery in St. Helena on the subject of cooperage, the making of wine barrels.\u00a0 We learned that the source and treatment of the oak makes a distinct difference in the taste of the wines matured in them.\u00a0 Then, on a visit to Paso Robles we got a graduate course.<\/p>\n

The location was the \u00c9cluse winery (www.eclusewines.com<\/a>), on a hill on the west side of town.\u00a0 \u00c9cluse is the French word for the locks that accommodate slopes in canals, opening and closing to allow boats to pass at different levels.\u00a0 The owners are Steve and Pam Lock, hence the name of the winery.\u00a0 We had heard about their Rhone varietals and asked for an appointment to come visit.\u00a0 Like many wineries in Paso Robles, \u00c9cluse is only open for the public on weekends.\u00a0 As we were in the area Monday through Thursday, a special appointment was de rigeur<\/em> (more French).<\/p>\n

We pulled into a gravel lot in front of a barn-like structure and were greeted by Steve Lock himself.\u00a0 Inside the barn were racks of barrels full of maturing wine and a small bar area with some boards stretched between a few barrels and wine bottles resting on them.\u00a0 This was wine tasting like it used to be, Napa in the \u201870s!\u00a0 We explained to Steve that our interest was in the Rhone grapes and he was happy to oblige us.\u00a0 Then he explained that \u00c9cluse is as well known for its Cabernet Sauvignons as its Rhones.\u00a0 Would we like to try some?<\/p>\n

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Steve Lock serving in the barrel room.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Yelp<\/em><\/p>\n

We guess we must have given Steve an idea that we were really interested in wine because he then involved us in a fascinating experiment.\u00a0 He had juice from the same vintage of his Cabernet Sauvignons aging in new French, American and Hungarian barrels.\u00a0 The French barrels have the finest grain, imparting a mellow, oaky flavor.\u00a0 The Americans have the widest grain, giving the wines a distinct top note.\u00a0 The Hungarians are in-between and project a creaminess to the wines.\u00a0 Steve took a wine thief and poured some of each, one at a time, into three different glasses.\u00a0 We sipped each and had never understood the impact of the cooperage on the taste of wine as much as we did that day.<\/p>\n

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A wine thief in use.\u00a0 Photo courtesy the Weekly Grape.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then we got to play assistant winemaker.\u00a0 Steve gave us each another glass and encouraged us to blend some of the wine that we still had from the three barrels.\u00a0 We have no memory of what we made that day, but we are quite certain that it wasn\u2019t as good as what came out of the bottle we received a few years later, since we joined the \u00c9cluse wine club that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some time ago, we took a class at the Joseph Phelps winery in St. Helena on the subject of cooperage, the making of wine barrels.\u00a0 We learned that the source and treatment of the oak makes a distinct difference in the taste of the wines matured in them.\u00a0 Then, on a visit to Paso Robles … Continue reading Tasting the Barrels<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions\/641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}