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+--- Thread: Use of new oak barrels (/thread-20839.html)
- wondersofwine - 07-11-2001
When a vintner says he uses 25% new oak (or 50% of whatever) does that mean that only 1/4 of the vats he produces are in new oak (how would you ever know which ones until you taste them?) or does it mean that the forming wine spends 25% of its time pre-bottling in new oak casks and then goes into old oak casks or stainless steel?
- Innkeeper - 07-11-2001
Believe it means the wine spends 25% of its time in new oak, and 75% in something else. We always look at it as a wine to avoid. Old oak is fine for reds, and no oak is best for whites.
- wondersofwine - 07-11-2001
Thanks for your reply.
- Dick Peterson - 07-17-2001
25% new oak means that of, say, 1000 gallons of wine fermented, the winemaker put about 250 gallons into new oak barrels and 750 gallons into older, used barrels for aging. After the barrel aging, all the barrels are pumped out into a tank for possible fining, filtering, then bottling. Barrels are often categorized by winemakers as "new," "once used," "twice used" and "old." Each year, as new barrels are added, each group of barrels moves down the line of category hiarchy. "Old" barrels can be three years old or more than twenty. But after about five years of use, no significant amount of oak flavor is picked up by wine from those barrels any more.
- Innkeeper - 07-17-2001
Thanks for the clarification Dick. One never stops learning, does one?
- mrdutton - 07-17-2001
Praise be to 5 year old oak barrels! I liked that explanation, especially the part about old oak not adding "TREE" to the wine.
[This message has been edited by mrdutton (edited 07-17-2001).]