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It is no secret that some wines—by no means all—benefit by spending some time in the intimate company of white oak. Not just any white oak, but very dense French, American, or Hungarian white oak, especially. Further more, this special oak wood is air dried for at least two years, then toasted by fire. The degree of toasting runs from very light to quite dark (though not as dark as the oak barrels designed to hold whiskey or rum). We typically associate the flavors, aromas and nuances of oak with certain types of wines such as chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, Aussie Shiraz, and Chianti. The amount of oaking varies from none to very subtle to overwhelming.
Oak contact yields certain flavor and aroma compounds--most notably vanillin and a toasty depth that hints of dark-roasted coffee. There is more to the oak-and-wine marriage than flavor, however. Time in (or on) oak also tends to enhance mouthfeel, smooth out rough spots, deepen color, enhance bouquet, and more. Traditionally, the mingling of wine and oak takes place during aging in barrels. In some cases, oak barrels or vats are also used as fermentation vessels. Anyone who spends much time making wine will, at some time or other, consider acquiring one or more oak barrels.
New wine barrels in the traditional barrique size (about 59 gallons) will cost a home winemaker between $500 and $1000 dollars. If you are seeking the special effects one receives from using NEW oak, your barrel will only be good for one or two uses! Commercial wineries often use their barrels only once. There are some good reasons for using barrels that have already been used once or twice as storage tanks, but most of the oak flavor is lost after one or two batches. What’s more, maintaining a barrel is no simple task. You must follow proper procedures for preparing, cleaning and storing barrels, or they will very quickly become infected with wine-destroying microbes. There is no saving such a barrel when that happens.
If you are getting the idea that barrels might well be more cost and nuisance than they are worth, well, join the club. Thousands of hobby winemakers (and a great many professional, commercial wineries as well) decide to let barrels be someone else’s nightmare. So what are the alternatives?
Oak chips
If you make wine from kits, you are no doubt familiar with oak “chips” and granular oak powder. These products have been around for a long time, and they are excellent substitutes for barrel aging or barrel fermenting. Granular oak (best known by the brand name “Oak-Mor”) will yield its flavor and aroma components in just a day or two. Oak chips, on the other hand continue to affect the wine for a week or two. There are, however, real advantages to lengthy oak aging. Some special compounds are formed through the specific chemistry of long-term leaching of sugars and other substances from the wood. That’s the reason I prefer to use oak cubes (or “oak beans,” as one manufacturer calls them). Oak beans continue to interact with the wine for a period of at least two or three months. Even more barrel-like in effect are individual oak staves from Stavin. These staves yield their goodies to the wine over many months of aging. The staves are drilled at one end to accommodate a cord to suspend them in a carboy or stainless tank.
Stavin Oak “Beans”
No matter which form of oak you choose, keep some basic pointers in mind.
§ It’s best to under-oak than to over-oak. You can always add more later, but you can’t get it out of the wine once it’s there (although some forms of fining may help a little). Nobody wants to drink wine that tastes like licking a freshly sawn board!
§ With kits, it may sometimes be better to use only half the oak provided, and then decide later whether to add more. I find that many kit wines are way too heavily oaked.
§ Store your oak chips, powder, beans or staves in dry zipper bags. Do not let them get wet unless you are going to use them immediately.
§ I have read recommendations for re-using oak beans and staves to replicate aging in “old” oak barrels, but I think this is a bad idea. First of all, most of the effect of aging in old oak doesn’t come from leaching compounds from the wood so much as from concentrating the wine by evaporating water and alcohol through the pores of the barrel. More to the point, oak beans and staves are just as likely as a barrel to become infected once they’ve been used. Why take the risk?
Are you still considering using a barrel? Well, that’s understandable. I know home winemakers who are using small 5-, 10- or 15-gallon Hungarian oak barrels with great success. Before trying it, learn all you can about barrel maintenance or you may just find yourself making several gallons of fine vinegar!
Mark writes:
My dad runs a small woodshop. He is currently making a kitchen cabinet set out of oak. Can I just collect sawdust from the sander and shavings from the planer and add these to my wine instead of using a barrel or spending money for sawdust and chips at the winemaking supply shop.
Please don’t! First of all, it’s likely that your father is using red oak, which is completely unacceptable for treating wine (and generally not appropriate for direct contact with any food). Red oak is filled with harsh tannins—so much so that a small amount would probably turn your wine brown and make it enormously astringent. Beyond that, though, if you hang out in your father’s workshop while he’s sanding red oak, you’ll easily detect the unmistakable odor of cat pee. That’s the aroma of red oak, and you don’t want that in your wine!
Even if you know he is using white oak, rather than red, the cabinetry wood is not meant for wine. Oak for wine comes from the dense cores of very old trees. It is air dried (not kiln dried) for at least two years, and then it is carefully toasted using open flames. Every step of the process requires quite a bit of expertise and experience. Please just go plunk down a couple bucks and buy the good stuff from the wine shop!
In January 2003, Brew King (now Winexpert) released a Napa Valley Chardonnay kit as their Limited Edition Series selection for that month. Chances are slim that you could find this kit today. Nonetheless, writing about it here will at least provide insights into the quality of the Limited Edition Series!
I hesitated to review this kit last year, because the wine was undrinkable, in my opinion, but showed promise of improving with time. I made two batches of this selection. One I produced more or less following Brew King’s instructions, except that I allowed it to bulk age for several months on fine lees. The second batch I designated a “reserve,” and set it to bulk age for a year and a half, stirring the fine lees every few weeks for the first few months. It is now ready to be bottled. Batch number one has become not just drinkable, but wonderfully drinkable in just the past month or two. The reserve is getting there, but needs several months of bottle aging before I’ll be willing to serve it to dinner guests.
What, you may ask, was the problem with this wine? Well, technically, nothing was wrong with it. The kit made a wine that was designed to the profile of a “big” Napa chardonnay typical of those that became public favorites during the 1990s: huge body and tons of oak. I call the style “oak-and-alcohol.” I knew the wine would improve because, over time, the rawness of all that oak was destined to soften into creamy textures and gobs of vanillin cookie-dough flavors, and so it has.
The wine is very rich and satisfying. It is not my favorite style of chardonnay—I prefer a bit more acid, more fruit and a lot less oak—but it is an outstanding example of its type. This is one of those wines that you offer to friends and they are completely astonished at the idea that a mere mortal could have produced such a wine.
Folks who buy kits and expect to have drinkable wines in a few weeks should generally steer clear of the higher-end kits. Most of the 75-dollar and up kits are really not ready for drinking until they have several months of aging. Often a year or more is needed. Many continue to improve for three or four years! With wines like this, patience is a virtue. Now that my Napa chardonnay is really very tasty, the challenge is going to be to wait for another six or 12 months when I think it’ll be downright extraordinary!
Also, see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CentralVirginiaWinemakers/
Copyright 2004 L. Daniel Mouer