Oak: The good, the bad, and the buttery.

Oak, and its influence on wine:

• Wines can be matured in different sorts of vessels. Small oak barrels (50 L) new or old, large oak barrels, and stainless steel vats. The material used affects the flavour of the wine. The size, age, and char (on oak) determines how the material affects the flavour.
• Oak can be either new or old (previously used for at least one vintage).
• It can be light char, medium char, or heavy char. The char level affects the "toasted" notes such as nuttiness, caramel, etc.
• Flavours imparted by oak include vanilla, coconut, tobacco, tar, spice box (cinnamon, clove, allspice), wood, nuts, and butter.
• During oak aging, malolactic fermentation is encouraged, where bacteria consume the malic acid and produce lactic acid (the same acid as in milk). This imparts a buttery, creamy texture to the wine and when used properly can result in a beautifully smooth and delicious beverage. When overused, it creates a wine that is "over-oaked," or lacking fruit.

Tasting oak on a wine is actually pretty easy. Roll the wine around in your mouth for a moment. Does it have the same texture as milk or melted butter? Smooth, round, creamy, and soft would be the adjectives used to describe the texture. Try to pick out some of the flavours. There might be vanilla, coconut, or butterscotch on a white wine, or vanilla, tobacco, tar, or caramel on a red. The flavours might be subtle, as in a very well-aged burgundy, or very noticeable, as on a California Chardonnay. An over-oaked wine might have a distinct "woody" note - almost as if you had licked a 2x4.

There's a disagreement in modern winemaking and critiquing over what constitutes "over-oaked." A current trend is towards very ripe, high-alcohol wines with a lot of heavy fruit flavours. These wines, in order to keep acid levels manageable, require a long aging period on new, lightly-toasted oak. This results in an explosion of flavours, many of which are considered faults by the old-school crowd. What it comes down to is figuring out whether you like oak, or dislike it. Take that preference to your wine retailer (make sure she's a good one), and let her pick out some wines for you to try.

The next post will be about sugar, and how wines can trick you into thinking they have some, when they're completely dry.