Customer Question - Are wines made in oak barrels the best?

We recently received an interesting question from one of our customers regarding the brewing methods of the wines we sell. He thought that stainless steel tanks and clay tanks sounded less classy than oak, and asked us why these two wines were not made in oak barrels.

We spoke to Alun, the Master of Wine, who recommended these two wines, and here's what he said in his insights:

When I started working in China the most popular imported wine was Bordeaux from France. The best Bordeaux wines are all aged in oak barrels and as a result a lot of Chinese consumers believe that oak ageing is the best way to mature all wines.

But different wines are suited to different ageing techniques. For example, aromatic, dry white wines are best suited to being matured in stainless steel tanks because the tank does not allow any other flavours into the wine. So the wine retains its purity, its aroma and freshness. For producers making crisp, fresh white wine this is what they want to achieve. Some wines clearly benefit from being aged in oak;  Cabernet  Sauvignon and Merlot, the main Bordeaux grapes, work very well with oak and would not taste as good if they were aged in stainless steel tanks.  Oak barrels allow a very small amount of oxygen into the wine which helps to create a smoother taste for red wines, but it must not be excessive. A new oak barrel will give a lot of woody flavours and a vanilla flavour to a wine, so new oak barrels are mostly used for very powerful, intensely flavoured wines which can stand up to the oaky flavour. Top Bordeaux and Burgundy are good examples. Old oak barrels are used for the less prestigious red wines because they allow oxygen in but don’t give much of a woody taste.

Some red grape varieties are not really suited to a lot of oak and one of those is the Grenache, which is the main component of the two wines we sell. Grenache has a very pure flavour of cherry and dark chocolate and ageing in wood sometimes spoils that purity. Concrete tanks are often used instead because they also allow in a little oxygen but give no flavour. So the case of these wines oak is not the most suitable vessel for ageing.