oaking shiraz?

Hi, long time no post, for me... i moved from michigan to Indiana, and haven't made a batch in almost a year. But now I have 2 going on.... one is a batch of cabernet, the other is Shiraz, both from california juice that I bought when I was in Canada...5 gallon buckets, good price. Just wondering about the Shiraz... is that something that people usually oak? Do shiraz wine kitz come with oak for fermenting or bulk aging? Just trying to figure out what to do... though I can't recall that shiraz i've tasted is usually oaked, or not much if at all.

tahnks. happy holidays, Blessed thanksgiving to you all.

Reply to
Rick Vanderwal
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Hi Rick, We do, and heavy. We like Australian reds and they seems to use a lot of American oak down there. I use about 4 to 5 ounces of beans or chips at medium to medium heavy toast of American oak. I make California Syrah (same thing) from juice and think it's much better oaked than without.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

I also have an Australian Shiraz brewing and the kit I bought came with

2 small packages of oak chips, I used both to get the full oak experience.

Sean

Reply to
spmu

If you like oak, Shraz is a good candidate for it.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

As Joe said, the Australians use American oak aggressively. Some observations to add; the Aussies also use very ripe fruit; almost invariably adjust acid and do so right at the beginning of fermentation; are aggressive with oxygen during primary to keep a fast and agressive fermentation; and they favor fruit that has a strong fruit flavor profle.

The French (northern Rhone) on the other hand seem to favor slightly less ripe fruit (lower sugar, higher acid), favor terroir versus fruit character, and use French oak - to varying degrees.

My point - your use of oak depends a lot on the style you're after. I produce Syrah from our own vineyard here in California. Given the choice, I would err on the side of high sugar numbers at harvest, adjust acid right at crush, promote an aggressive fermentaton, but then use French oak. I currently have about 20 gallons of 06 Syrah in stainless vats with medium toast French stave inserts. I prefer the slightly softer profile of the French oak versus the stronger American oak. How long it stays on oak is varies - that usually gets figured out over a period of tastings.

Reply to
Ric

I think that this is pretty good advice. Oak type depends on the style you want. Without knowing the flavour profile of your shiraz I would say go French in the first year. If it handles it well then experiement with American the year afterwards if you think that a more aggressive oaking would suit. I would oak a portion, say 2/3 to 3/4, and then you have some to back blend with, if you overoak. Best to be a bit conservative to start with. If you decide you have not enought oak you can always add more. This is better than oaking everything at a 100% new oak rate with chips, and then working out down the track that you are overoaked. The oak cube companies always give nice spreadsheets on how to use their products to give 100percent new barrel oak flavours. However most of the time except with exceptional fruit, the wine would have one third one year old oak, one third 2 year old and one third three year oak. Hence their tables can be missleading and lead to overoaking. If this does happen, dont worry too much, just rack off the oak, and then age. If a few months time you will probably be wondering what you were worrying about. It will intergrate. I like to use Stavin cubes. Look at their website, it tells where you can get home winemaker quantities.

James, The Australian winemaker, working in the Fingerlakes New York.

Reply to
James

You have some very good advice from several people on several styles; one additional word on oaking;

The last bag of StaVin beans I got were European (probably Hungarian) heavy toast. The heavy toast seems to take much longer and be a bit more subtle that lighter toasting. I'm probably going back to a medium to no more than medium heavy toast.

I like StaVin but am not averse to good chips either; I think both do well. You get what you pay for in most things but chips are much less expensive and do a decent job on medium quality juice or grapes. I don't care for the dust but others like it.

French and European are similar tastes, American is different. (French chips are probably cheaper than American beans from StaVin is where this is going; just in case cost matters.)

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

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