All That and a Bag of Chips?
It has been a practice for several hundred years to age wine in oak barrels. Oak plays an important role in the process of wine making. It enriches the wine with new compounds that impart flavors. It serves as a barrier in the storage and therefore allows for specific physical reactions to take place.
What about those flavors? First and foremost, there are primarily two places that the oak most used in winemaking comes from. That’s France and America — mostly Missouri. Yes, I said Missouri. You will hear these oaks referred to as French Oak and American Oak. They deliver different nuances themselves. (There is a winery in Napa Valley where you can taste the difference during a tour. This winery does barrel tastings and will give you samples from wine that is aging in either American and French oak and that is the only difference. This is a worthwhile experience and a very fun visit, yet that is for a later blog.) Oak exerts its influence on wine through chemical processes that support the evolution of flavors and structure. The geographical origins of the oak, the forest, and type of grain will influence what the wood contributes.
The most interesting aspects of oak are the aromatic compounds and vanillin that will contribute to the structure and taste of the wine. Here are examples of the flavors oak can contribute: almond and smoke, coconut, cloves and spices, caramel and toffee, vanilla. That is quite a list; and many winemakers have their favorite forests to pull the wood from, a particular process to have the wood seasoned, and then the right person to toast the wood to their specifications and build their barrels. (Barrel makers are called “coopers,” and the facility where this is done is called a “cooperage.”) You can imagine how many options are available for a winemaker to develop flavors and nuances based on oak and to marry up what is best for developing the best possible wine.
Barrels can be quite expensive, ranging from $1500 to $1800 each when new. When you read about wines, you will often see information about how much time the wine spent in barrels and what percent of new oak was used.
There are other means of imparting the flavors and nuances of oak to wine. Oak inserts can be added into wine tanks to achieve a similar outcome. Sometimes winemakers use oak chips in bags, which are immersed into the wine. While it is clear that this path is less expensive, there are some winemakers that contend that this can be a way to better control the oak influence on the wine. That would be something for you to vote on as you choose the wines you enjoy.
As you can see, I have only scratched the surface of how integral oak is to the winemaking process. Truly the science here is fascinating and much more complex than I have described. Yet you now have new distinctions to engage in as you explore: What are those nuances that I smell and taste? Is it from the oak? How long was this wine aged in barrels, was it 100% new oak or what percentage of new? Interesting things to ponder as you explore what is in your glass.
Enjoy!