Oak Cask Alternatives

Filed in archive Wine Making on October 27, 2007

Sometimes I think about wine making and marvel at the intersection of art and science. I think it's debatable which is more important when creating a great wine. The winemaker has a creative vision for his or her wine, and yet so much technical knowledge is necessary at the same time. And things keep getting more complex in the winemaking world. There is controversy over additives like Mega Purple, and there is also debate over the benefits of using oak chips instead of barrel-fermenting wines. Derrick Scheider wrote a very interesting piece in Friday's San Francisco Chronicle about the use of these oak chips as a less-expensive alternative to pricy barrels.

As with anything else, there are people who think it's a great idea. The wood chips are cheaper and they are generally consistent. But opponents argue that there is just no substitute for the character that oak barrels impart onto the wine fermenting inside them:

Mel Knox, a straight-shooting and jovial barrel broker in San Francisco, talks passionately about what a great barrel can add to great fruit.

"When you take quality, tight-grained wood," he says, "you get a certain level of vanillins, a certain amount of clove and nutmeg. You get a little bit of coconut, the so-called whiskey lactones. You get all of that in an interplay with wood tannins. It just works out really, really well. You get something that I don't think we've produced with barrel alternatives yet.

I suppose the great oak chip controversy might sway people who are on the edge when it comes to the idea of putting nutrition labels on wines. Although I'm still not convinced it's really necessary, I would like to know if the wine I'm drinking was barrel-fermented or aged in a steel tank with wood blocks floating around. And I'm not saying that because I think one is better than the other. I'm saying it simply because it's a different winemaking technique and I like having the knowledge of what went into producing a wine.

As wine consumption continues to grow, and as more and more wines are produced, I wonder if these oak chips will be a method used by wineries creating lower-end, mass-market wines? If people don't care where the flavor comes from, in one way I can't blame winemakers for wanting to save a few bucks. On the other hand, for many people wine is about tradition, and every little thing makes a difference.