Oak-ageing is considered one of the tools in a wine producer’s armoury

Q. How can a wine taste oaky?

A. The use of oak barrels can play a significant role in how your bottle of wine tastes. It is a complicated business as the origin, type, age, and manufacturing of oak can make a huge difference.

Before the invention of watertight (or rather wine tight) cement and stainless steel, wine was fermented, aged and transported in either clay amphorae or wooden casks. There were no other options. Over time, it was discovered that wine aged for a period in oak casks became smoother and rounder. Barrels needed to be replaced from time to time, and producers noticed that wine aged in new oak casks added different, extra flavours. The barrels stopped working their magic after three to four years, but still softened the tannins in a wine.

These days oak-ageing is seen as one of the tools in the producer’s armoury. A wine maker has a wealth of choices when choosing a barrel, starting with which cooperage to use. There are plenty to choose from. Then what kind of oak. American, French, Hungarian, Slavonian, or another country? If it is France, a producer can choose which forest the oak comes from. The better-known include Tronçais, Limousin, Allier, Nevers and Vosges. Each kind of wood brings different flavours. In general, American oak is spicier, almost sweet with vanilla and coconut, whereas French oak is more subtle and makes the wine smoother. Barrels come in different sizes. A standard 230 litre barrique gives far more oak flavour to a wine than a 600-litre demi-muid or a 15-hectolitre cask.

Light toasting

The next step is to choose a level of toast — the insides of the barrels are literally burnt or toasted using a hand torch to produce caramelised compounds that bring charred, burnt, spicy or sweet flavours to the wine. A light toasting will typically bring a sweet spiciness, a heavy toast yields coffee, caramel, butterscotch and woodsmoke.

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New oak barrels are expensive. A new French barrel from a top cooperage can cost anything from €750 to €8,000 depending on size and quality. American oak is typically half or a third of that.

If new wooden barrels are too expensive, a producer can buy used hand-me-downs from other wineries. Posh wineries sell these at a premium. If you cannot afford those, you can add wooden staves or planks to the tanks of wine. These will impart an oaky flavour to the wine at a fraction of the cost. Cheaper still are oak chips (widely used, although illegal in some areas) and cheapest of all oak powder or essence — illegal in many countries.

Subtle influence

A wine maker will often age a small portion of their wine in oak to give it a more subtle influence — and save money too. Others renew a third of their barrels each year. Done properly, oak can add a layer of complexity to a wine and make it silky smooth. All of the great wines of the world, red and white, have been aged in oak barrels. Done clumsily, however, it can dominate the wine and make it undrinkable.

There are many people who dislike the taste of new oak in a wine. Happily for them, the majority of wine never goes near an oak barrel. Either the producer cannot afford it, or, more likely, he or she wants to preserve the natural fruit in the wine. So, lots of fresh fruity wines such as sauvignon blanc, albariño, Chablis, pinot grigio, are fermented and aged in stainless steel or cement tanks, or old oak barrels.