The idea of recycling wine barrels isn't new. Given the fact that oak barrels impart flavor for an average of just three years, and that prices for French oak continue to rise as the value of the dollar sinks against the euro, it is no wonder that American wineries have started to look for ways to squeeze more use out of their barrels. Unfortunately, no one has yet been able to make barrel recycling a viable option as inconsistent results, including off tastes and leakage, have been big obstacles.

Each time a barrel is filled, its ability to impart oak flavor and oxygenate wine diminishes. After just three fills, a barrel is rendered neutral. As prices for new oak barrels skyrocket-on average, barrels cost anywhere from $300 to $1,200-more wineries are looking for alternatives. Unfortunately, breathing new life into a used oak barrel with any consistency seems like a veritable magician's feat.

A new dry ice barrel blasting process, however, gives winemakers an extra year or two of use out of their oak wine barrels. Napa-based CryoClean uses rice-sized particles of carbon dioxide (dry ice) propelled at supersonic air stream velocities to clean a wine barrel's interior of substances such as old wine residue and tartrate crystals.

Joining the wine business in April of 2004, CryoClean's mobile barrel-blasting process is relatively new, and the company is currently in a testing phase with several wineries that have wine stored in the blasted barrels. Some of these include Napa Valley's Caymus Vineyards and Moss Creek Winery, Cloverdale-based Quaking Hills, Thumbprint Cellars in Healdsburg, and Star Canyon Vineyards, located in Lodi. E&J Gallo's Sonoma facility is perhaps the biggest to be involved with the testing.

Across the board, these wineries are excited about barrel-blasting's potential. "While I'm sad to disclose the 'little secret' that has given my handcrafted wines an advantage over the rest of the industry, by allowing me to use cost-effective, clean barrels," said Scott Lindstrom-Dake, owner and winemaker of Thumbprint Cellars, "I am also elated that the CryoClean founders are getting the respect they deserve by creating an alternative to buying new $800 wine barrels."

Another CryoClean customer, George Moskowite, the proprietor of Moss Creek Winery, said, "I think the barrel-blasting concept is remarkable. Traditionally, we buy 50 to 60 new barrels each year. With barrel blasting, I foresee buying fewer barrels on an annual basis because I'll be able to reuse my existing, clean barrels. From a cost standpoint, barrel blasting is fabulous. You get clean, inspected barrels in which you can confidently store wine. This will definitely affect the quantity of oak barrels I buy in the future."

The Process

CryoClean guarantees that their process is fast, safe and reliable, with environmental benefits to boot. Some of these benefits include a dramatic decrease in the rate at which French oak is cut down and made into wine barrels, as well as a vast reduction in water use and its subsequent run-off.

CryoClean uses retrofitted dry ice blasting equipment from ColdJet, Inc., headquartered in Loveland, Ohio. ColdJet pioneered the research and development of dry ice blasting and is generally recognized as the leader in dry ice technology. The company's dry ice blast systems meet all USDA, FDA and EPA guidelines, as does the equipment retrofitted and used by CryoClean.

The owners of CryoClean, Vic Vasquez and Bob Flook, have honed their barrel-blasting process through old-fashioned trial and error followed by exhaustive rounds of testing. Vasquez and Flook have enlisted the services of master cooper Pete Sayre of Stave Works, located in Sebastopol, California.

With Sayre's help, CryoClean has perfected its technique: removing just the barrel's top, doing a visual inspection of the barrel to check for damage or contamination, then dry ice blasting the barrel's interior. Once the barrel has been cleaned, it is reassembled, pressure checked, and SO₂ (sulfur dioxide) is added. Sayre is now part of the CryoClean team and is there for each and every barrel-blasting job, which can range anywhere from 25 barrels to 150 barrels, depending on the size and needs of the winery (for orders of 50 barrels or more, CryoClean comes to the winery to perform the blasting).

"I am convinced that CryoClean's barrel-blasting process is the most significant thing to happen to barrel sanitation since ozone," said Sayre. "Even though barrel blasting is in its beginning stages, it is showing real promise, especially for the premium winery looking for ultimate barrel sanitation."

According to Sayre, a big part of the CryoClean process is the full barrel inspection. By removing the barrel's top, Sayre is able to do a full inspection inside and out. He looks for signs of a "bad barrel," such as blisters holding old wine, residual burn marks or evidence of contaminants like Brettanomyces or trichloroanisole (TCA). If a barrel appears suspicious, the cooper will set it aside and alert the winemaker of the problem. If all is well, the barrel will go through the blasting process.

According to Vasquez, CryoClean has the only process that gets 99 percent of the barrel clean. Independent testing conducted on CryoClean's barrels, following the blasting process, showed the lowest possible levels of contaminants such as ATP, yeast, mold and bacteria.

Most wineries use some form of hot water rinsing to clean barrels, where a stream of hot, pressurized water is shot through the bung hole. This process eliminates tartrates and lees but can leave behind bacteria hidden deep in the wood. Cleaning through the bung can also be awkward and can miss some of the barrel's interior surface area. It also uses a massive amount of water, up to 25 gallons per barrel each time the barrel is washed out.

Another process for cleaning barrels that is gaining speed is barrel-shaving (see WBM, "Reinventing the Barrel," May 2004). While the practice has been around for hundreds of years, some companies are bringing it back into vogue. The process planes a quarter inch of wood from the inside of the barrel and then retoasts it. While some wineries are on board with this approach, others aren't happy with the results. Of the problems cited, the most troubling is the off flavors retoasting can impart to wine. Because wine penetrates deep into the staves, any residual wine left behind after shaving the barrel can end up being virtually cooked into the barrel during the retoasting process. Additionally, shaving the barrel too heavily may compromise the integrity of the barrel.

Microwaves, ozone and chemical treatments have also been sporadically employed to clean barrels. With the first method, a clean barrel is treated with microwaves, raising the temperature of the wood uniformly without damaging its layers. Using ozone is also becoming more widespread but is used mostly for removing odors, not for disinfecting a barrel completely. Ozone can also be hazardous to the operators, resulting in possible health problems, limiting its use as a viable cleaning option. Finally, chemicals need to be used carefully and in sequence to guarantee barrel cleanliness.

"The key to our process is that we are leaving the barrel's original toast intact," said Vasquez. "Other companies that are shaving the barrel or removing a lot of the wood are also removing the toast. But, because we aren't adding or removing anything, just cleaning the barrel and opening up the grain of the wood, our process leaves no residue and no off tastes."

The Toast

Because toasting is the most important part of barrel flavor, it is a hot button for winemakers considering any type of barrel cleaning. CryoClean anticipated this area of concern and has made its dry ice blasting equipment fully adjustable, enabling the team to take off the precise amount of wood and tartrate crystals dictated by the winery. And, because each winemaker's needs vary, CryoClean treats each job individually.

"Some wineries want a littler deeper or higher pressure blast that will open up the grain of the wood and give them more surface area," said Vasquez. "Other wineries just want a light surface blast. We've even had wineries ask us to blast brand new $1,000 French oak barrels because the toast was too heavy and they wanted just a bit released. In each and every case, we work closely with the winemaker to make sure their needs are being met."

That sentiment was summed up by Thumbprint Cellars' Lindstrom-Dake. "The phenolic comparison between my wine from new oak and used oak cleaned by blasting is only very slight, at best. In fact, I personally favor the subtleties found in the treated barrels over the pronounced influences from new oak. And, as far as flavors imparted into the Thumbprint wines, I again prefer the integration of spice from the barrels blasted by CryoClean."

CryoClean has been doing industrial cleaning since 2000. Back then the company was using dry ice blasting for cleaning in many different industries and manufacturing processes, including automotive factories, chocolate factories, bakeries, and polyprocessing and plastic injection mold plants. Vasquez and Flook have backgrounds in the semiconductor welding and automotive industries, respectively.

"Our barrel-blasting process is sound," said Vasquez. "Right now, we're just trying to get the word out to new customers so we can show them that getting more life out of a barrel is possible. Hopefully in five years, our process will be making a difference environmentally."

As wineries face ever-increasing demands on their profits, barrel blasting makes sense economically. Blasted barrels are a fraction of the cost of new barrels-it costs between $50 and $70 per barrel for blasting versus $300 minimum for a new barrel. And the environmental impact is nil. Vasquez describes blasting 100 barrels and sweeping up literally a tennis ball-sized pile of sawdust. There is no water, no residue, no waste; the dry ice simply evaporates and dissipates into the air. wbm

For more information on CryoClean's barrel blasting process, visit www.barrelblasting.com.