Canadian oak

Hi Rick,

I know there are now (and I don't know for how long, though I think not long) coopers in Canada making barrels out of Canadian white oak. There are six wineries trying them down in the Niagara region, I'm told.

I tasted chard out of one at Featherstone, and the oak seemed fine.

Dave

**************************************************************************** Dave Breeden snipped-for-privacy@lightlink.com

Rick,

Red oak is a little more common than white oak in terms of availability, at least for woodworking in Ontario if I'm not mistaken.

Therefore make certain your oak is not red oak as that can be poisonous. I would assume the white oak in Ontario is American Oak and therefore it will tend to lend oakiness and tannins more quickly than european varieities which are a different species.

Good luck,

Glen Duff

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Rick Gibs> My other hobby is woodworking and I do a lot of work with white oak, most of

Assuming the wood is well seasoned (dried) it would be usable in wine. You would probably want to toast it some - at least lightly - before adding it to wine. I'd expect it to be good in Zin or Cabernet, but not so good for Pinot Noir or whites.

Tom S

Thanks

I have both red and white oak and you can see the difference, much tighter grain in the white plus the red is just slightly redder. Will toast it first and see how it comes out the next time I make a batch where I need to add/buy oak.

Rick

Don't use the red oak. I've heard that it is poisonous - but I'm still alive.

Red oak just doesn't _taste_ good. White American oak is much better. French and other European are better still. I recently heard of Russian oak, but I have never tasted it AFAIK.

Tom S

Russian is pretty much the same as French to most palates. I saw a trial (from a barrel manufacturer) that said winemakers claim to pick up certain characters when they know which is which...but often come unstuck when it is blind.