Out of the Woods ........

The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels is
170 years

People ask me all the time about oak and wine, by far the most frequent inquiry I receive about any subject relating to the production of wine. How is it used, what is its history and what kind of influence does it have on the wine along with several other questions concerning its implementation into the fashioning of the wine. Most of us are familiar with museum pieces and replicas of archeologically recovered clay pots and amphorae from Greek and Roman sites. These clay based vessels predate wooden containers for the storage of wine and other liquid goods but the existence of straight sided, open wooden buckets which employed the craft of the cooper is documented in Egypt as early as 2690 B.C.E. (Before the Christian Era). Fully closed barrels were first developed during the Iron Age (800-900 B.C.E.), and, by the first century B.C.E., were widely in use for holding wine, beer, milk, olive oil and water. As trade and transportation evolved, shippers discovered that sealed wooden containers were highly superior to the fragile clay vessels and the artistry of the cooperage trade began to emerge. Through its history, different types of wood, including pine, chestnut and redwood, have all been used in making wine barrels and especially fermentation vats. However, very few types of wood possess the same properties as oak. Oak is water tight yet porous enough to allow the wine to evaporate slightly, around six gallons of wine can evaporate from a barrel in a year. This evaporation concentrates the wine, harmonizes the different flavors and allows small amounts of oxygen to pass through which helps to soften the tannins. The shape of oak barrels also makes it extremely strong and, on its side, can be moved easily by rolling even when full. Oak can also be sourced from different areas with France and America (Missouri oak is used a lot) being the most popular but it is also sourced from Eastern Europe, Slavonian and Hungarian oak, which Italian winemakers have a long history of utilizing. Oak from certain forests in France is especially prized which makes it very expensive. French oak typically comes from one or more primary forests: Allier, Limousin, nevers, Troncais and Vosges. The wood from each of these forests has slightly different characteristics. American oak tends to give a more intense flavor and is much favored in the Rioja region of Spain. More recently, winemakers have even experimented with Chinese oak.

Oak plays a larger role in winemaking than most people realize. The color, flavor, tannin and texture of a wine can all be influenced by oak contact either during fermentation or aging of the wine. When it comes to white wines, oak is often viewed as compromising the fruit flavors and should never be allowed anywhere near the juice. However, for the longest time, those with this opinion were a small minority. It used to be that producers around the globe were over-oaking their wines in order to disguise lower quality grapes. Over the past few years, the consensus seems to be among the wine drinking public that oak influence in wine should not be implemented. This really does not mean that oak in wine is always a bad thing but it is more like how you would season your cooking. The correct amount will enhance the preparation but too much will overpower the essence of the dish. The nuances of vanilla, spice, nuts, caramel, cream, toast and butter that oak can impart to the wine can dramatically increase its complexity. A wine is not too oaky just because you can taste a slight oak character in your glass of Chardonnay. It is too oaky if all you can taste is oak. Balance between the oak, alcohol, fruit and acidity is the key.

The problem with oak started back when many winemakers, in Australia and California especially, discovered that they could mask the lack of fruit or flavor in their wines, mostly in Chardonnay, by using oak in some form. Consumers would enjoy a “nutty” and “richly flavored” wine without realizing they were simply drinking fermented grape juice which tasted very little like it should. The over-oaking of wine was widespread but since a quality oak barrel is very expensive, cheaper methods were looked into. Oak can be introduced to the wine in the form of free-floating oak chips or as wood staves added to wine in a fermentation vessel like stainless steel. Around this period in the mid-1980s, when the practice of heavy oak contact was at its peak, David Hohnen founded a New Zealand Winery producing Cloudy Bay. It caught a lot of people’s attention by producing a pure expression of Sauvignon Blanc which was crisp in acidity, light in body, very fruit forward and totally unexposed to oak. The result, for the most part, was the opposite of what everyone else was doing with their white wines and people seemed to like it. Consequently, the reversal slowly began with a wave of unoaked wines starting to appear on the market. These were fresh wines that tasted of the grapes they were made from rather than what the winemaker had added. All of a sudden, everyone in new Zealand was making unoaked Sauvignon Blanc. For red wines, controlled oxidation takes place during barrel aging. This very gradual oxidation results in decreased astringency and increased color and stability. It also evolves the fruit aromas to impart a more complex bouquet. Through a program of topping off the wine while it is in the barrel and racking the wine from barrel to barrel to clarify it, just enough oxygen is introduced to the wine to induce these beneficial effects over a period of many months.

A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container made of vertical wooden staves that must be bent into shape before they are assembled to form a barrel which is then bound by wooden or metal hoops. In order to bend the staves, the barrel maker, named a Cooper, heats them over an open fire. This is called toasting and the longer the wood is exposed to the flame the more toasted it becomes. Because it’s the toasted surface of the wood that comes into contact with the wine and because toasting influences the flavors imparted to the wine, the degree of barrel toasting is a very significant factor. At the extremes, heavy barrel toasting can impart a caramelized taste to wine while a light toast may impart a subtle hint of vanilla, smoke, nuttiness or even toast. It wouldn’t be any surprise that a wine aged in oak for a longer period will have more oak flavors. The general rule is that the more full-bodied the wine, the longer it will spend aging in the barrel. There are a number of factor that influence a winemaker’s decision as to how long to leave the wine in barrel. If the final product is to be a blend of grape varieties, such as Bordeaux or Chianti, the winemakers must decide if they want to blend the individual wines together either before or after putting them into barrels to age. If they are aged separately, the winemaker must decide how long to leave each separate wine in wood to achieve the desired taste or style before they are actually blended together. This is obviously a complex series of decisions and the winemaker has to seriously monitor the developments at all stages.

The cost of a wine barrel can vary greatly depending on the type of wood it is made from. A French oak barrel can cost more than $1100.00 each with the price varying based on exchange rates. American oak is less expensive costing up to $600.00. Barrels from Eastern Europe cost around $800.00 each and all prices vary depending on the cooperage. Due to the high price that wine barrels command, most wineries cannot afford new barrels every year although all of the good wineries try to purchase a certain percentage of new ones. Because of this cost, barrels are used more than once (the upper limit is 5 times) and each time a barrel is used it has fewer properties remaining to impart to the wine. American oak has wider grains and contains a higher percentage of vanillin which is thought to impart more of a vanilla and oaky taste. Typically, if winemakers are using American oak, it is on bold red wines or fuller-bodied Chardonnays. French oak has a tighter grain, contains more tannin and flavor components and is thought to impart a more subtle oak flavor. While the majority of winemakers would side with French oak, some other wineries are known to use 100% American oak for aging their red wines.

Traditionally, the barrel was a standard size of measure referring to a set capacity or weight of a given commodity. For example, a beer barrel had originally a capacity of 36 U.S. gallons (140 L) while an ale barrel had a capacity of 32 U.S. gallons (120 L). Wine was shipped in barrels of 31.5 U.S. gallons (119 L). A small barrel is called a keg. Modern wooden barrels for winemaking are either made of French common (Quecus robur) and white oak (Quercus petraea) or from American white oak (Quercus alba) and have typically these standard sizes: Bordeaux type, 59.4 U.S. gallons (225 L) and Cognac type, 79.2 U.S. gallons (300 L0. Modern barrels and casks can also be made of aluminum, stainless steel and different types of plastic. The cooperage is the operation where the Cooper constructs the barrels. Barrels are only one type of cooperage. Other types include buckets, tubs, butter churns, hogsheads, kegs, puncheons, butts and pipes. Barrels have a variety of uses including storage of liquids such as water and oil, wine, Cognac, Armagnac, Sherry, Port, Whiskey and Beer.