🌳Oaked wines are wines that have been fermented or matured in barrels made of Oak wood.
🥥Wine usually gains flavours and texture from contact with oak and will likely gain aromas like vanilla, butter, toast, coconut, or baking spices. Oaked white wines usually have more body than its unoaked counterpart, while oaked red wine usually have smoother tannins (less drying sensation in the mouth).
🗺There are two types of oak barrels, American and European (mostly from France, Croatia, Hungary..) and each kind adds different flavors to the wine. American oak is said to be ideal for more structured wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and it can add flavors of vanilla and coconut while French wine for example is used for more light bodied wines like pinot noir and chardonnay and adds flavors like hazelnut and smokiness.
⏳It’s important to note that although oak barrels can age a 100 years, after 2 to 3 uses the oak barrel stops adding flavor and it becomes neutral-apart from micro-oxygenating the wines as they are stored in the barrels.
Red wines coming from the Bordeaux region in France are examples of wines being aged in French Oak Barrels, and red wines coming from Rioja in Spain are examples of wines aged in American Oak.
Photo: Oak Barrels in the ” Domaine des Tourelles” winery in Lebanon
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