Barrique

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Aging barrel and Wine barrel (discuss)

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since July 2006 .

A barrique is a small oak barrel used for fermentation and aging of red and white wine. Only oak trees growing in regions of Croatia, France, and Hungary qualify for production of proper barrique barrels.^{[citation needed]}

It was originally a French unit for measuring the volume of wine (1 barrique corresponds to about 225 liters). There are many different sizes of oak barrels, but a barrique is one of the commonest ones, even outside of France. When "barrique" appears on a wine label, it is an indication that the wine was fermented and/or aged in barriques, which lends a certain set of flavors and effects.

The word "barricade" originates from the use of barriques, filled with earth and rubble, to create street barriers during the French Revolution.^{[citation needed]}

To decrease the costs of producing barrique wines there are several oenological methods to produce the typical wooden taste without wooden barrels. Either so-called chips — compressed wood platelets/oak-chips — are added to the wine, or a similar substance in liquid or powdery form, or inner staves are used.