Oak wine barrels - What You Need To Know About French and American

Winzer debate is the choice of French versus American oak casks. It is a simplification, if the choice between French and American oak limit when it comes to the wine barrel. Factors such as the ability of wineries, vineyards, to Cooper's techniques to make a wine barrel, stave (the individual strips of wood, the barrel-shape), thickness, size of barrel toast levels, grain, storage conditions and the amount of time in the oak Wine Barrel allImpact on the character of the wine. When is a wine barrel to around 5 years old, it is neutral in its effect on the taste of wine.

Most of the world are wines in wooden casks or wine barrels forward in stainless steel tanks. Oak barrels of wine to enhance flavor, aroma and complexity of the wine by the extraction of substances from the wood into the wine. Oak wine barrels so that the air (oxygen) toContact with the wine to a slow oxidation.

Why Oak?

Historically, wood type a question of tradition, variety, economy and personal taste. Redwood was commonly used in the construction of railings and punched several times larger than the conventional 60-liter oak barrels. However, Redwood is no longer used because it is bending too rigid to the bars and gives a yellow color to the wine. Chestnut, high in tannin, too porous andNeeds of paraffin coating to prevent excessive evaporation of wine loss. Oak is used almost exclusively in barrels of fine wines because of its strength, workability and the lack of undesirable flavor or color of extracts. Oak's tight grain allows progressive extraction of wood flavors. Oak is elastic, so that the rods be bent without breaking, unlike hardwoods such as apple or cherry, and has a neutral smell of wood. Oak is a high tannin, taste is an important component in the correct amountsallows red wines to age swallowed oxygen, which otherwise spoil the wine.

French and American oak

The majority of winemakers insist on French oak. Used grown but a growing minority of an American white oak species in Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky, Oregon and Ohio, for the craft of wine barrels. It is preferred over red and black oak because of its high tannin content, tighter grain wine minimize evaporation, and the resistancePrevent shrinkage wine leakage occurs after the wine is removed from a newly-filled barrel.

Joint forest harvesting in France, French white oak for wine barrel production are Limousin, Allier, Vosges, Nevers and Troncais, planted in the days of Napoleon for shipbuilding. Each forest produces oak, gives slightly different nuances of the taste of wine. Each forest produces slightly different density of the wood determining the rate of extraction of theseAromas. Growers typically use a mixture of wine barrels from different forests to take advantage of the unique features of each for its own.

This notion of regional character does not exist with American oak. The character of the oak tree in a forest is through the growth conditions and age. Winemaker American oak is the reputation of Cooper as well, which condition is affecting the oak grown on the reputation of a cooper, founded on the basis of its ability tointo a single product from year to year. While growers expect variation in grape quality from year to year, consistency is in new barrels from one year to the next purchase of crucial importance.

As growers seek to lower production costs, the demand for American oak has increased dramatically. More growers have American oak casks cost about $ 400 French oak barrel costs more than $ 1,000 or more per barrel replaced. This trend has prompted re-examination of the differences between the American and French oak. While both American and French oak contribute tannin and aroma, French oak contains more tannins and flavor components with less "oaky" flavor and smell than American oak. American oak has a more aggressive mouth feel and flavor immediately apparent. American oak contains vanillin (vanilla flavor) and odorous substances.

Some have believed in American oak is a little rough, raw character precluded its use for white> Wine and made it desirable for aging performance, robust reds such as Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. But Bottcher successfully reduces undesirable characteristics of American oak through the use of traditional French production techniques. Stave wood is stacked outside to air dry, oven dry place or in the oven for a minimum of 18 months. The wood is exposed to rain leaching and drying, excessive hardness, while maintaining desirable vanillin components, of which 70%lost, during the dehydrating. In the past, American oak barrels were flash-fired, producing a heavy char suitable for aging bourbon. Toasting of the barrels are made slowly over low heat, so that a deeper penetration of the wood and flame caramelization of sugar.

When it comes to wine, wine barrels, all to see for something else. If you have five wineries that the results had cost would be five different answers. There is no right or wrong choiceWine barrel.