1. Home
  2. Winemaking Craft Forum
  3. Oak / Barrel questions

Oak / Barrel questions

Back to ask some questions after a long time lurking. (I'm still waiting for a question that I feel confident answering...)

There's a group of 8 of us that have taken advantage of the red wine grape glut here in Australia by picking and making some red wine.

We have just completed our 3rd vintage and, naturally enough spend a lot of time arguing about what to do.

These have been the 2 new discussion items:

1) Last years Shiraz (picked Jan 2004) - we produced 2 x 225 litre Oak barrels, bottled one of them and have one still in the barrel. We have 2 factions in the group - do we bottle this now, or leave it another 9 months in the barrel?

The barrel is American Oak, and was 3 year sold when we bought it. Would the extra time in the Oak improve the wine to a greater extent than bottle conditioning?

For info, the current drinking (from the first bottled vat) is very good at the moment, a nice body, but not too big...

2) This years vintage (a Cab Sav) has been pressed (yesterday) after about 6 weeks on the skins in a Fermenter Bag and is now in a Cellar Bag. It will go into 2 Oak barrels at some stage. In previous years we added Oak chips to the Cellar Bag and kept it in the bag for about 6 months. Some of the group have read or heard that Oak chips do not add any (or very little) Oak characters to the wine. It is suggested that we just keep it in the cellar bag for a few weeks to let it settle (no Oak chips) and then just place it in Oak barrels.

The other view is that Oak chips add a good splash of flavour to the wine and we should add them to the bag and leave it for 6 months before moving it to the barrels.

Can anyone relate some experience about the effectiveness of the oak chips?? Or indeed add any comments to our ongoing discussions??

Cheers

Reply to
The Lonely Sea
Loading thread data ...

It depends a lot on your taste, but personally I would leave it in barrel for a full 2 years. If it's not a new barrel, I might leave it in longer.

I like noticeable oak in my wines, but maybe you prefer fruit bombs.

A 3 year old barrel is close to neutral storage, so you won't get much oak flavor from it. Still, time in barrel will tend to soften the wine and make it more approachable.

That's simply false. Oak chips are made from _new_ oak. They certainly will impart flavor to the wine, depending on how much you add for a given volume of wine.

FWIW, I prefer to add chips to the wine during the fermentation, and carry them over after pressing. I realize that's a bit messy, but if you put them into a mesh bag to begin with it's not that bad.

The idea is to integrate the oak and fruit as seamlessly as possible. That's why barrel fermentation is so good. The fruit and wood are together from the very beginning, and the action of the yeast tends to "fine" the rough edges off the oak in situ.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

Tom

Thanks for that. New plan is to leave last years in the barrel until next summer - that will give it 2 years barrel condition.

For this years picking, we are adding the oak chips to the cellar bag this weekend and will wait for the malolactic fermentation - it can then go into some barrels from there

Cheers

Reply to
The Lonely Sea

I don't know what a cellar bag is, but as long as an "old" neutral barrel is still in good condition why not just add fresh chips into it. It is the breathing and reduction of wine in the barrel that seem to give the wine the character we all strive for. I call it a form of caramelizing, but I'm sure this term is all wrong, right or wrong Tom?

SG Brix

Reply to
sgbrix

Right or wrong nomenclature, that's a good approach. FWIW, I prefer to add French oak chips/beans/staves or whatever. Be sure to mind your free SO2 and top up regularly (and any time you pull the bung).

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.