Or how do they prevent it from rotting for such a long period of time.
I cant imagine that they use multiple wooden barrels during an aging proces of 30 years or so. Because it would interupt the proces, I geuss?
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Not only do they not replace the barrels but they can even reuse the barrels even after 30+ years. Firstly they are stored in very dry and dark places. Life needs water to survive, even bacteria and fungi. There are technically water in the content but this is mixed with a lot of alcohol which is lethal in those concentrations. So bacteria, fungi and insects could not survive from it. Secondly wood contain very little nitrites. These are extremely important for all life to build proteins and for the chemical processes in the cell. Especially for bacteria they need a lot of it. But the cells in wood do very little chemical processes and are mostly just structural so they contain a lot of carbon and very little nitrogen. That means that even when fungi or bacteria is able to start attacking the wood it quickly runs out of nitrogen compounds and need a secondary source. This is why wood often rots from the bottom as the fungi can bring nitrites from the soil. But these barrels are stored in stone basements and even then are stored off the floor.
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