This article explores the resurgence of concrete as a wine-aging material, highlighting its neutral profile that allows the terroir and seasonality of the grapes to shine through. It contrasts concrete's benefits with oak barrels and discusses how winemakers are incorporating both methods to achieve balanced and expressive wines.
If great wine is a work of art, then you might consider the oak barrel in which it’s typically aged as the frame that shows off its best qualities. But just as an ornate setting can draw more attention than the painting, wood can overpower fruit and hide a wine’s true beauty. It’s why an increasing number of cellar masters are aging in concrete, an old-fashioned method that has never felt more current.
It’s also about meeting current demand. Heavy, overly tannic bottles are losing their appeal among wine lovers who have shifted toward lighter diets. Using concrete enables winemakers to offer vintages with fresher characteristics. This is possible thanks to the slow and steady oxygenation such barrels provide. “We use uncoated concrete, since its granularity can trap oxygen reserves,” says Michel Chapoutier, owner and winemaker atin France’s Rhône Valley.
Concrete’s other main benefit is limited temperature variation; whether egg-shaped or in a large rectangular tank form, the thicker walls “change and transmit temperature more slowly” than oak, Ledit says. It gives winemakers more control over the final product—and, when you taste one of the five bottles on the opposite page, you’ll know that’s a good thing.Image Credit: Courtesy of Zuccardi
This wine is produced using a selection of superior Grenache berries from 90-year-old vines and aged for about 16 months. With a nose of raspberry, anisette, and dried Mediterranean herbs, it has luscious tannins and flavors of Luxardo cherry, licorice, thyme, and slate. Its best quality may be its long-lasting finish.Image Credit: Courtesy of Pym-Rae Tesseron Estate
CONCRETE WINE OAK TERROIR AGING
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