wrote:
> Probably not, one thing that barreling your wine does more than just
> add the oak tanning/flavor is that a micro oxygenation occurs that
> caramelize your wine. Daniel Pambianchi wrote an article about just
> this phenomenon in the Wine Maker magazine,
> http://www.winemakermag.com/feature/111.html that might be worthwhile
> having a look at.

Do you have your references mixed up? Pambianchi is not of this
opinion, infact he even states "I'm of the opinion that the barrel is
essentially air-tight, and the only air that enters does so when the
bung is removed to top-up the ullage."

The topic remains debatable, however Pambianchi does ignore the
wine-air interface that exists inside the barrel staves in his
argument.

Ben