🏷️ Barrique
A small 225-litre oak barrel, as used in Bordeaux.
A barrique is a small oak barrel holding 225 litres. This size is associated with Bordeaux in France and is one of the most common barrel sizes for ageing wine.
Barrels are made mostly of French or American oak. Wood is porous, so a little air gets in through it, and this slow micro-oxygenation helps stabilise the colour of the wine and soften its astringency. Oak also passes aroma compounds into the wine: oak lactones with a coconut and woody note, vanillin, smoky guaiacol and spicy eugenol. The toasting of the barrel affects which of these compounds reach the wine and in what amounts.
A new barrel gives the wine much more of these compounds than one that has already been used, and its influence weakens with each use. Barrels are expensive, and ageing in them usually lasts from 6 to 18 months. Red wines are aged in barrels most often, but some whites are aged this way too.
The barrique is one of the most common forms of oak ageing. Under EU labelling rules, a wine with a protected designation of origin or geographical indication that was fermented, matured or aged in a wooden container may say so on the label.
How it connects to Wine
🏷️ Barrique ← packed in ← 🍇 Grape brandies → related → 🍷 Wine
How it connects to Spirits
🏷️ Barrique ← packed in ← 🍇 Grape brandies → kind of → 🥃 Spirits
Links
- Previous step
- 🏷️ Oak ageing
- What is packed
- 🍇 Grape brandies, ⚗️ How spirits are made, 🥃 Grappa, 🥃 Grappa piemontese, 🥃 Grappa friulana, 🥃 Grappa veneta, 🥃 Grappa lombarda
- Part of
- 🏷️ Oak ageing, ⚗️ How spirits are made
- Where it applies
- 🗺️ French wine, 🗺️ Italian wine, 🗺️ Spanish wine
- Similar and different
- 🏷️ Oak ageing, 🍷 Pièce (Burgundy barrel)
- In other topics
- 🥃 American single malt whisky
Frequently asked questions
What is the volume of a barrique?
225 litres; it is one of the most common sizes of wine barrel.
What does a barrique give wine?
A little air through the porous wood and aroma compounds from the oak: vanillin, coconut-scented oak lactones, smoky and spicy notes.
Why do new barrels have a stronger effect?
A new barrel releases more oak compounds into the wine; with each use it gives less.
What to read next
- 🗺️ Italian wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grape varieties, appellations.
- 🍇 Grape brandies — Brandy is a wine distillate of at least 36% ABV, a year in oak or more; Cognac and Armagnac are protected place names, so “brandy” without a place is only an EU category.
- 🥃 Grappa — Italian grape pomace spirit with an EU geographical indication: at least 37.5% ABV (75 proof in US terms). “Invecchiata” means 12+ months in wood, “riserva” 18+.
- 🥃 Grappa friulana — Grappa from Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Italy: local pomace, distilled and bottled in the region, strength from 40% ABV, volatile substances from 200 g/hl.
- 🥃 American single malt whisky — American single malt whisky is US whisky from 100% malted barley, distilled at one distillery and aged in oak barrels of up to 700 L; the TTB standard has applied since 19 Jan 2025.
Similar
🏷️ Solera · 🏷️ Biological ageing · 🏷️ Oxidative ageing
⚠️ Wine contains alcohol: adults only, drink in moderation. Wine usually contains sulphites; egg white or milk proteins are sometimes used for fining — important for allergies and for vegans.
Sources
- Wikidata
- Wine Aging Technology: Fundamental Role of Wood Barrels (Foods, 2020)
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/33, Article 53 and Annex V