Shauna Rosenblum imagines making wine without oak barrels

Shauna Rosenblum, winemaker at Rock Wall Wines, can't really imagine the world without wine barrels. She goes back to one of her early memories—up at her family's vineyard—sitting around the campfire with her father, Kent. As both dad and ground-breaking winemaker, Kent would teach Shauna how to identify the flavors in her S'more as it related to the smells in wine. He would have her isolate the aromas of toasted graham cracker, toasted marshmallow and chocolate-- the same flavors barrel can bring to wines.

"If you don't have barrels, you have great fruit, and that's exciting," Shauna says. "But—it's so important to layer. And if you don't have wood in your wine, it's kind of... lackluster."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Coopers
• winemaking
• wine
• winery
• cooperage
• oak barrels