Port Barrels which wood is best?

[dsreardon]

Hi Everyone,

I've got a question for anyone with a port barrel, I am currently in the market for a barrel I'm thinking 15L.

Here's the question what is better American Oak or French oak?
I don't mean price just which will produce a better end product? and what the difference is between the two?

And where would be the best place to purchase a barrel.

[griff]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Its a good question and some have asked this one before. Check out the search function and you will come up with this recent thread.

http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.p ... ght=barrel

Oh and commiseration about the Wolf Blass - for some reason I have a mental image of a certain episode of Blackbooks.

cheers

Carl

[Davo]

It shouldn't matter which oak is used as the wood should really be so old as to not be imparting much flavour into the port at all, especially in such a small barrel where the surface area contact to the wine is so high.