Same wine - Cabernet Sauvignon, same vintage, but 3 different barrels: Hungarian, American and French oak. We tasted all them blind to find out the difference. This barrel struggle was fun!
We have learnt the difference in taste between same wine matured in different barrels, it was real magic to compare the influences of different kinds of oak, even though we struggled to decided which one is which.
This tasting experience also gave us a good example of the influence of different styles of wine on the palate. Be careful if you taste dry wine after sweet wine, this may not work properly! for you and your palate.
We had a great and comprehensive tasting during our visit to Gurbuz Winery. But the last (not least!) sweet late harvest wine just changed our palates' perception significantly! Lesson learnt: be careful, if you decide to continue wine tasting with dry wines after sweet one.
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This kind of Wine Edutainment is a great experience for everyone, especially for wine students. I study for DipWSET recently and I find this tasting experience really helpful for developing my palate.
To summarize the hints about barrels usage, I will quote those precious comments of the winemaker Akin Gürbüz on different barrels usage:
"Let me tell you how and why I use each type of barrel. On my cellar, 50% of the barrels are American oak. It matures the wine quicker, makes it ready to drink. And also what I like in the American barrel is this caramel and vanilla taste. I like it in wine and the hint of sweet finish, because it makes it ready-to-drink wine. For the French oak. It usually takes a longer period of time to mature the wine. At the beginning it was like kind of a harsh but in the longer run, it creates a very elegant and complex wines. For the Hungarian barrel I choose, it gives the backbone to the wine. It gives that freshness the acidity and also like a structure the tannin components to the wine. And I usually use at least one Hungarian oak on my every blend because that creates this like a kind of like a column backbone on the wine."
While organizing wine tours, I always include this kind of a blind tastings in our program. It is a great opportunity to enjoy wines, communicate directly with winemakers and actually learn something new!
Just keep in mind, that this amazing winery "Gürbüz Winery" is just one hour ride from Istanbul and you can easily join my next wine tours and tasting events.
Just drop me a line if you would like to join our next winery trip: vasilisayilmaz@gmail.com
Thanks a lot to Akın Gürbüz and Gürbüz Winery for this Barrel Struggle Experience :)
and to Nadiya Bıçakçı for Co-Tasting and special assistance with spittoon :)
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