Why Is Oak Always Used To Age Wine and Spirits?
April 23, 2012 3:52 AM   Subscribe

Why do winerys/distilleries only use oak barrels for aging purposes?

I want to know why wineries/distilleries only use oak barrels to age their products, as opposed to other types of wood - beech, cedar, etc.

Is it that oak imparts better flavors than other wood/is more watertight/chars better in cooperage/etc.
posted by Lipstick Thespian to Food & Drink (18 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I know oak gives a flavor to chardonnay; other wine, I'm not sure.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:03 AM on April 23, 2012


There are a lot of places that use stainless, rather than oak. I'm not sure if that's part of the question.
posted by pompomtom at 4:14 AM on April 23, 2012


According to the wikipedia article on Oak (wine), yes it is that it imparts better flavors, etc. "However none of these wood types possess the compatibility with wine that oak has demonstrated in combining its water tight, yet slightly porous, storage capabilities with the unique flavor and texture characteristic that it can impart to the wine that it is in contact with."
posted by Houstonian at 4:23 AM on April 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


Wikipedia covers this pretty well.

Oak is traditional, functional and plentiful. Winemakers have lots of past usage to draw upon; it's a known quantity, which matters if you're putting your wine, and thus your livelihood, in it. The tannins and vanillin that oak imparts are known quantities: it may not be an exact science, but it's a well-honed craft. There's always going to be a guaranteed supply of nearly-new American oak barrels from the bourbon trade. And so on.
posted by holgate at 4:31 AM on April 23, 2012


There are also, for whiskeys at least, laws stipulating the use of only oak barrels in some whiskeys (Scotch in Scotland, Bourbon in the USA, but interestingly Ireland only specifies "wooden casks" for Irish whiskey). I'd assume that the use of oak predated the laws, and the need to regulate it indicates that maybe (this is speculation) there was some fraud going on with inferior product being produced with non-oak barrels. Regardless, the laws on the books in those jurisdictions now certainly enforce the use of oak even if other woods would be appropriate, tasty substitutes.
posted by The Michael The at 4:39 AM on April 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


Best answer: As a counterpoint, spruce tips are used as an additive in some traditional/historical beer recipes, and of course retsina (wine) is famous for the pine that gives it a resinous flavor. My favorite beer also uses pine - Albion from a UK heritage brewery - but it may not even be in production anymore. (Spruce imparts a distinctly wintergreen flavor.)

None of those trees are used as barrels, of course, because they aren't going to make good watertight barrels - the woods don't absorb water & swell to seal their cracks.

Those are the only wood flavorings I can think of off the bat, and I've done a fair bit of research into historical beer flavorings. Most woods wouldn't add much flavor at all; it's the high level of tannins in oak that are notable, and old (used) oak barrels don't yield nearly as much, so that the age of the barrel is important to the finished product. As an example, some scotches are finished in "sherry casks"; that implies old & used oak casks, so the major flavor added is from the sherry, not the tannins.
posted by IAmBroom at 5:01 AM on April 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


Additionally in some areas of Europe Chestnut, Acacia and various fruitwoods were occasionally used to build the aging vessels. For example Barolo historically used Chestnut botti.

That said - the chemical interaction between the tannins in wine and the various components in oak are a big part of why it ended up predominating. That and availability/cost.

Charing/Toasting a Barrel as well as its age/previous usage and size are all explicit decisions made by a wine maker. For example elevage in small barrels of American Oak called "Barrique" that have never been previously used is considered a hallmark of the "international" wine style promoted by Robert Parker and Michel Rolland.
posted by JPD at 5:11 AM on April 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


There's always going to be a guaranteed supply of nearly-new American oak barrels from the bourbon trade.

Pretty sure historically used Bourbon barrels were not a source of barrels for winemaking. The Char is just too heavy.
posted by JPD at 5:14 AM on April 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


Just in terms of the wood itself, oak tends to have straight grain and high density, which make it good for cooperage. We have a stacked cord of oak that was cut a year ago, and it still needs another summer's seasoning to be ready to burn well. Hickory has similar characteristics, and someone's made a barrel out of it for aging a whiskey that isn't subject to the rules that govern Bourbon. Beech also has the right density, and it's traditionally used to age feta.

Pretty sure historically used Bourbon barrels were not a source of barrels for winemaking. The Char is just too heavy.

Mea culpa: more tea required before posting in the morning. You're right: Bourbon casks are mainly sold on to age spirits; what I should have said is that the Bourbon industry's requirements sustain the cooperage industry in the US, which means that there's a healthy supply of new American oak barrels.
posted by holgate at 5:23 AM on April 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


Fyi its no rule other than by law in some cases as noted. There is a candian whiskey maker (fourty creek) who just released a new blend aged in maple (ya know... canadian) barrels which is really great. To my, semi expert oak-barrel bourbon tongue I do notice a difference in that its way lessvote for aged/complex tasting so that's an empirical vote for the use of oak as a flavor enhancer.
posted by chasles at 5:23 AM on April 23, 2012 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Experience:
"In addition to his artistry and organicially treated vineyards, Alfred Moritz also experiments with untraditional cask ageing. Besides the classic oak casks, he also tries cherry barrique and chestnut. And why shouldn’t he? The region is crowded with cherry trees.

“You have to be very careful though,” Alfred explains. “The wine can easily be steamrolled by the dominant cherry casks. At one occasion I quickly had to pump over the wine when I noticed it was going the wrong direction,” Alfred explains and laughs at the same time."

Research:
Research paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (June 2011): "Comparative changes in color features and pigment composition of red wines aged in oak and cherry wood casks."
"At the end of the aging, wines stored in oak and cherry barriques lost, respectively, about 20% and 80% of the initial pigment amount, while in the 1000 L cherry casks, the same compounds diminished by about 60%. Ethyl-bridged adducts and vitisins were the main class of derivatives formed, representing up to 25% of the total pigment amount in the cherry aged samples. Color density augmented in both the oak and cherry wood aged samples, but the latter had the highest values of this parameter. Because of the highly oxidative behavior of the cherry barriques, the use of larger casks (e.g., 1000 L) is proposed in the case of prolonged aging times."
posted by iviken at 5:33 AM on April 23, 2012 [4 favorites]


Best answer: Yes - totally true. It ties into the tighter grain of the oak and the greater ease making tight barrels with oak. The pores in those other woods are bigger. For example a chestnut botti is a much larger barrel then is an oak barrique. Even in regions like the Mosel they traditionally aged wines in Oak, but in huge foudres that minimized the impact. Not only that but those are used over over and over again. In Germany even some of the pores get filled with crystalized tartaric acid that fell out of solution in the wine - make the Oak Foudres even slower at oxidizing the wine.
posted by JPD at 5:41 AM on April 23, 2012


Oak chips are sometimes added to wines aged in stainless.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:03 AM on April 23, 2012


Mea culpa: more tea required before posting in the morning. You're right: Bourbon casks are mainly sold on to age spirits; what I should have said is that the Bourbon industry's requirements sustain the cooperage industry in the US, which means that there's a healthy supply of new American oak barrels.

Very true. The largeish local distiller maintains giant cooperages and stave mills. After the barrels' single use here (~7 years), they are shipped to various Scotch whisky makers overseas.
posted by jquinby at 7:14 AM on April 23, 2012


Oak chips are sometimes added to wines aged in stainless.

Only as a cost saving method/industrialization of the process.
posted by JPD at 7:29 AM on April 23, 2012


Luxardo Maraschino is fermented in larch wood, then distilled, then aged in Finnish ash wood.
posted by slkinsey at 8:04 AM on April 23, 2012 [2 favorites]


I don't know how common a practice it is, but some Scotch distilleries re-use wood from barrels that were previously used in other functions (still alcoholic). A sherry/brandy bodega I visited in Spain uses their barrels for about 60 years to age their wine or brandy, and then sends the barrels to Scotland. The Scotch distillery breaks the barrels up and takes the wood that's still good to make new barrels for their aging process. The obvious benefit is that the Scotch is then imparted with flavors picked up from 60 years of aging sherry or brandy. I don't know which specific distillery gets barrels from the winery I went to, but I have seen a type of Scotch labeled "Solera", which is the term for the sherry aging process, so that particular brand was using the sherry connection as advertising.
posted by LionIndex at 8:29 AM on April 23, 2012


On a related note, balsamic vinegar is successively aged (solera) in barrels of oak, cherry, chestnut, mulberry, acacia, juniper, and ash. Ostensively so that the vinegar can obtain some of the flavors of the different woods.
posted by zinon at 8:58 AM on April 23, 2012


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