Once a muscat barrel always a muscat barrel???

[Fritz]

Hi,

I am just starting out with a 6litre barrel and want to know that if I put muscat in it first time around does that mean it's always got to have muscat in it or can I change it to port sometime down the track if I feel like it?

I have read through this post http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=6782 which is great but it doesn't cover the specific question above.

Many thanks

Chris

[bacchaebabe]

I'm having a completely uneducated stab at this one.

The first and obvious thing to point out is that whe you start up a barrel, the idea is to keep it going for some time. In fact the longer the better as your base material gets older and more complex, improving the flavour forever, theoretically. It would be possibly better to figure out what you perfer the most and strt with the approriate fortified.

If you really want to change it over, I don't really see why you couldn't but you'd want to give it a pretty good wash out. I would think it would be better to go from tokay or muscat to Port rather than the other way around as the port is a bit stronger in flavour so should cover the muscat and probably be enhanced by it. Muscat over port might be a little bit more of a problem but not that much.

My final bit of advice is to not let the barrel dry out between the changeover as the oak will shrink and may cause leaks. It may be prudent to fill it with water for a couple of weeks in between, maybe with a couple of changes before refilling.

If you're only doing a 6 litre jobbie though, I'd be inclined to just buy a new one and run two rather than changing over.

[Fritz]

Thanks for the response. We've gone with the muscat as we both agreed it is what we enjoy more at the moment. I guess I didn't want to end up comprimising the chance to change over down the track but I missed the obvious point of just buying another one!

Cheers