Vinceremos Organic Wine Blog

Oak in wine – do I want that?

This subject is a real hot potato! Many wine drinkers have very firm opinions on the use of oak in wine but as it tends to be present in many of the worlds greatest wines it’s impossible to discount its importance. The nuances of vanilla, spice, nuts, caramel, cream, toast, butter etc. that oak can give to wine can enormously increase the wine’s complexity. The negatives are that wines can be ‘too oaky’ and have little else going on but oak character.

For many the problem with oak started about twenty years ago. Many winemakers (Australia particularly) discovered they could mask the lack of fruit or flavour in their wines (Chardonnay more than any other) by using oak barrels to give the wines an oaky taste. Consumers could still enjoy a nutty and richly flavoured wine without realising that they were simply drinking fermented grape juice that tasted of very little on its own. Soon this technique became widespread, but as a quality oak barrel is very expensive – prices of around £400 for a new French oak barrel are not unusual – cheaper methods were investigated. Oak staves and planks were soaked in the wine tanks and classic ‘oaky’ notes passed into the wine. Before too long oak chips and even oak dust was used, and oak character was becoming easier to attain and at considerably cheaper prices than by using a new French barrel. Interestingly the use of chips and dust was actually illegal in the EEC until 2006. In the Brandy industry a substance called Boise – oak essence – was used. This cut the aging time for the spirit and was far cheaper than using a barrel. Anyone who has drunk very cheap Spanish brandy may well have noticed the intense caramel flavour caused by adding boise, burnt sugar or just caramel itself to the base spirit. It is generally recognised that wines made using oak chips or dust do not age as well or for as long as those made with traditional oak barrels.

The over-use of cheap oak methods (chips, staves, dust) produced an enormous amount of wines that tasted almost identical- a glut of over-the-top oaky wines with little character other than spicy vanilla appeared all over the market place. The wine-drinking public soon began to tire of these formulaic bottles – instead they looked for pure-fruited wines which people felt expressed genuine character rather than the manufactured styles so commonly found. Around this time a wine from New Zealand called Cloudy Bay caught people’s attention. It was a pure Sauvignon Blanc – crisp, light in body and absolutely brimming with fruit. The wine was made without the use of oak and the result was the opposite of Australian Chardonnay, and the backlash started. Fortunately the industry were receptive to what was going on and a new wave of ‘unoaked’ wines started to appear – fresh Chardonnays that tasted of the grapes that went into the bottle rather than what the winemaker added became very popular ever since, and are even quite trendy. It should be noted that a similar ‘bandwagon-jumping’ exercise occurred in New Zealand to the one Australia experienced with Chardonnay, and before long hundreds of very similar tasting Sauvignon Blancs flooded the market!

Meanwhile, in the background, the great wineries of the world continued to do what most of them had been doing for centuries – making their wines with oak. In Burgundy Pinot Noir and Chardonnay continued to be made with deft and careful oak use – after all these winemakers had been using the same techniques for some time and saw no reason to change. The idea of drinking the greatest of white (such as Puligny-Montrachet or Corton Charlemagne) or red Burgundy (such as Echezeaux or Corton) which has not been exposed to oak is unthinkable. The same goes for Bordeaux – you can be sure that all the great wines made here have seen the inside of an oak barrel at some point. It’s a similar story for the grandest red wines of Spain and Italy – Rioja is famous for its oaky character and the most highly regarded red wines of Tuscany and Piemonte all see oak in the wine-making process.

Oak barrels are essential for many winemakers. New barrels produce the most intense flavour, but the barrel itself is a superb container for aging wine so older barrels are used even when they impart no noticeable flavour. In some wineries ancient barrels are used year after year as they are ideal for allowing the wine to mature. A certain amount of evaporation occurs, as well as a tiny amount of oxidation – the wine can get richer and more complex when stored in this way. The aging process in the production of an oak barrel itself is complex – different lengths of time (anything from 10-36 months) produce different characteristics, as does the amount of toasting the barrel is given before it is used. This is where the inside of the barrel is charred or toasted over flames to various levels from light to heavy. Dependent on what style of wine is being made barrels of a certain age and toastiness are selected.

Oak can also be sourced from different areas, French and American being the most famous, but some is sourced from Slovenia and Russia. Oak from certain forests in France (Limousin and Vosges for instance) is particularly prized. American oak tends to give a more intense flavour is much favoured in the Rioja region of Spain. The most recent gossip in the wine press is that Chinese oak is set to become the latest thing in wine-making.

The way the market has developed over the last twenty years has ensured a style for every wine lover exists and no matter what your preference you can find something that will suit your taste buds – even those who love their broodingly powerful oaky Australian Chardonnay can still find a bottle or two!