As a kid my dad made a red wine in a used bourbon barrel every year (new barrel each time). When I got into brewing beer I thought he would have a lot of good advice for me, but it turns out he was pretty much just throwing 5-gallon buckets of pure grape juice (boy, was that some tasty juice) into the barrel, letting it catch wild yeast, covering the hole with a towel for a few days, then capping with an airlock.
When I was 19 or 20 I filled a few glasses from the tap on the bottom of the barrel and I thought it tasted pretty good, maybe not fantastic, but not hooch either. This was also towards the end of the barrel and it didn't taste oxidized.
How did he get away without sanitizing or pitching yeast and still end up with drinkable, consistent wine that didn't seem to oxidize over the half a year of drinking it straight from the tap?
When I was 19 or 20 I filled a few glasses from the tap on the bottom of the barrel and I thought it tasted pretty good, maybe not fantastic, but not hooch either. This was also towards the end of the barrel and it didn't taste oxidized.
How did he get away without sanitizing or pitching yeast and still end up with drinkable, consistent wine that didn't seem to oxidize over the half a year of drinking it straight from the tap?