A "barricato" wine was aged in barriques at the end of the fermentation process. The aging in barriques gives wine a deep colour and softens its tannins. When the oenologist determines that the wine has been aged long enough in barriques, it is bottled and, in some cases, left to age for a longer time. Many wineries use a combination of old and new barriques of one, two or three years. They tend to replace their barriques after only four or five harvests, since deposits that prevent the interaction between wood and wine form inside.
