Is oak (toasted or untoasted? or both?) added to german whites like Gewurtztraminer or Riesling? If so, french oak or american and what toast level?
- posted
19 years ago
oak in german whites?
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- posted
19 years ago
No, to have noticable oak in a Gewurtz or Riesling is extremely unusual and is generally considered to be unpleasant.
Ben
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- posted
19 years ago
About the only white wine I've ever heard of oaking is Chardonnay. I don't think a sweet, flowery German-style wine would benefit from adding oak flavors. If you're a real oak fanatic, you're welcome to try it (it's your wine) but I don't think most folks would recommend it.
Doug
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19 years ago
Not to my knowledge... oak completely kills these wines.
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19 years ago
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- posted
19 years ago
I agree with most of the comments above, that seriously oaking these wines will kill them (I personally think it kills Chardonnay as well). Having said that, I actually use a small (1/2 oz/6 gal carboy) amount of really well rinsed medium-toast oak beans for a short time (6 weeks out of a 9 month age) in riesling.
The idea was to mimic some sort of neutral-barrel aging. This amount turned out to be just enough to give some complexity and body to the flavor, but not enough to give oaky, vanilla, or butter flavors at all. It was just a little something that really couldn't be described.
Just a thought.
Rob