Re: Oaking?

There are some advantages to adding oak early on. 1) Integration of oak aromas with varietal aromas. 2) Formation of anthocyanin - tannin (oak tannin) complexes that help to stabilize color. 3) Incorporation of well inegrated "Dark Toast" aromas using heavy toasted chips without the risk of over oaking by using heavily toasted barrels. (I love the "toaste hay" aroma that you get from a small amount of dark toasted oak, especially when it is added early. I find that you can smell this faint aroma even when the glass is empty and only a red stain on the bottom of the glass is left!)

I've had great success using medium and heavy toast oak chips in my primary fermentation. I find that the presense of oak and the use of "rack and return" pump-over provides extremely integrated oak aromas. Remember, the aromas that oak adds is a complex set of molecules that can and do react with other aroma molecules from your grapes (or other fruit). Quite frankly, there are molecules present in your must that are not present (or are present in minute quantity) by the time you start bulk aging. Adding oak early allows these molecules to interact to form new ones that can give added dimensions (read "complexity") to your wines.

Believe me, its worth a try!

One word of advice. Do not go overboard with the early oak addition, use small amounts to start. In the search for complexity in your wines it is important to remember that too much of a single flavor or aroma can cause your wine to be "angular" or "one-dimensional". Remember, you can always add more oak in bulk aging.

Good luck and CHEERS to ALL!

Aaron

I agree with that entirely. The earlier you add oak to your wine, the better it becomes integrated into the wine's flavor profile. Also, I've heard it reported that the action of the yeast during primary fermentation tends to fine the harsh tannins "in situ". My own experience tends to bear this out.

That's where I tend to disagree. I find that wines are more forgiving of _early_ overoaking than if you overdo it later. For one thing, if the wine is still fermenting and you find the oak to be overwhelming early on, you can rack away from the wood and the wine will likely recover completely. OTOH, if you overoak a wine late in its development, you have little recourse but to attempt to fine the wine to reduce the oakiness or blend the wine with one with less or no oak.

Of course personal preferences play a big part in these decisions. I like a lot of oak in most wines, but not everyone would agree with me on that.

Tom S

Tom what type of fining could be used to reduce oakiness - my guess would be gelatin, since it is usually considered the stripper of fining agents - but I thought I would ask.

I have a batch from last fall that was a blend of juice with some fresh Carignan fermented on some Zinfandel skins which got a heavy dose of oak, from chips used during fermentation and from being the first red into a new barrel. It has been out of the barrel for about six weeks now, but the taste from the carboy is still very much a oak punch in the nose - an a little corse at that. I kind of like it, and it was never intended to be one of my topflight wines, so I had thought about blending it but a option to reduce the oak via fining is also interesting.

steve

Gelatin works, as do skim milk and isinglass. Use the first two as 10% solution and the latter as 1%. You really should do trials at different levels, and the range for gelatin is ~¼ to 2 pounds/1000 gal; for skim milk try 1-2 qt/1000 gal; isinglass ~2 to 5 oz/1000 gal.

Preceding your choice among those with ~1 lb/1000 gal Kieselsohl and 2-3 lb/1000 gal bentonite is a good idea.

Generally, trials are done on an array of 750ml bottles of identical wine that is fined at different levels with different materials. The idea is to duplicate on a small scale in the lab what you will eventually do to the entire lot.

Try fining trials on it. It's often miraculous what judicious fining can do for a wine. When you do the trials, decant the wines after a day or two. Get someone whose palate you trust to taste with you. Don't talk about your impressions until you've both/all decided for yourselves.

BTW, the best time to do fining trial evaluations is in the morning, after flossing and brushing _without_ toothpaste. Use a tongue scraper if you have one, or just brush your tongue. When tasting, be sure to spit the wine. Don't eat anything while you're tasting. Use either water or club soda to clear your palate if necessary. Remember, the differences will be _subtle_, but if you do it right you _will_ pick out differences among the samples - not only in the palate, but also in the aroma.

This is a very important part of _fine_ winemaking. If you do this right, it's possible to transform an ordinary wine into a good wine, or a good wine into a _great_ wine!

Tom S