Oak barrels have been a critical companion to wine for thousands of years, probably starting with the Romans who borrowed the idea from the Celts, who used them for beer storage. Before then, they had primarily used amphorae as their storage and transportation method of choice.
What started as a convenient solution for storage and transportation using an abundant local resource, has evolved over the centuries to become an important winemaking tool to transform the structure and flavour of the wine that is stored in it.
Let's explore the influence oak has on wine, the choices winemakers have when it comes to its use, and where you can find different approaches across the Vino Cammino range. We hope it goes without saying that none of the wines in our range take the industrial wine approach of dumping chips or planks of oak into large tanks in order to approximate the effect of storage in barrels.
The impact of oak on wine
There are three key ways that oak barrels can transform wine:
1. Oxygen
The porous nature of wood as well as the gaps between staves and around the bung allow a tiny amount of oxygen into the barrel. That can darken the colour of the wine, and introduce tertiary flavours (e.g. earthy, dried fruit or nut flavours). It also helps to soften the tannins that are already present in red wine.
2. Tannins
Tannins can be extracted from young oak barrels, which can increase the body and add texture to wine. Where tannins from the grape can be bitter and drying, the tannins from oak are more likely to be softer and assist in integrating the grape tannins over time. These tannins can make the difference in a wine's ability to age and improve in quality for decades.
3. Flavour compounds
Along with tannins, the oak can supply its own unique flavour profile. Depending on the type and treatment of oak, this might include vanilla, coconut, baking spices and toasty flavours. With the right balance, this can increase complexity of the wine in a pleasant way, but can easily overpower a lesser wine if it doesn't have sufficient intensity of primary flavours (those from the fruit itself).
The choices for winemakers
Every stage of winemaking has endless decisions that can impact the final style of a wine. Post-fermentation, the use of oak is one of the biggest decisions a winemaker has to make, and there are 5 key aspects to its use to be considered. The first three tend to impact the intensity of the oak influence, whereas the last two impact the type of flavour compounds provided by the oak.
1. The age of the barrel
New oak will transfer maximum tannins and flavour to the wine. The impact roughly halves with each vintage until its influence is barely perceptible from year 4 or 5. Older barrels will still provide a slow supply of oxygen to the wine, so continue to be used where that is the impact desired by the winemaker. Catherine Deruet Dhoye from Domaine de La Fontainerie in Vouvray is a great example of using barrel age to determine her Domaine styles. The Chenin Blanc from the namesake Coteau La Fontainerie vineyard always sees new oak, estate wines with the 'Le C' designation age in barrels between 1 and 3 years old, wines from the Coteau Les Brûlés age in barrels of 4 years or older, and the estate wines without the 'Le C' designation see no oak at all.
2. The size of the barrel
The volume of a barrel increases faster than its surface area (because, maths) and so the larger the barrel, the more subtle the influence of the oak across all of the impacts mentioned above. The full range of barrel sizes are utilised across the Vino Cammino range, from the smallest 225L barriques (though in our range these are usually blended with larger format oak) through to enormous centuries old casks that hold 7000L, which are used for some of the Kuentz-Bas whites. Typically, the larger the container, the more likely it will be kept for decades (sometimes centuries) and utilised purely for its oxidising ability rather than to supply flavour and tannin.
3. Time in the barrel
Time spent in the barrel is the third way a winemaker can influence the intensity of the oak influence. That said, in Europe it's also the most commonly regulated aspect of winemaking where most of the regions you know and love will have minimum requirements for oak ageing, particularly for red wines. For example, Barbaresco must be aged for at least 9 months in oak (Cecilia Monte keeps her Serracapelli Barbaresco in oak for 12 months), whereas Barolo requires a minimum of 18 months in oak (Stefano Cagliero keep his Ravera Barolo in oak for 2 years, and his Terlo Barolo in oak for 3 years). Don't think this means Barolo will always have more oak influence than Barbaresco though, as the choice of barrel age and size can lead to a greater influence despite less time ageing. Cecilia tends to use a mix of small, large, old and new barrels, whereas Stefano sticks with a greater proportion of old and large format oak.
4. Species of oak
French, American, Slavonian and other species of oak contribute different flavour compounds to wine. Vanilllin (as found in vanilla) is the most common and often prominent across all. American oak tends to provide a distinct coconut aroma, and otherwise usually has more intense flavour. European oak provides more subtle flavours but often greater levels of tannin. Slavonian oak tends to be the oak of choice for our Italian producers, whereas it will not shock you that our French producers tend to stick to French oak.
5. How the barrel is made
Finally, coopers (the people who make barrels) make two key decisions which can influence the impact the barrel will have on the wine style. The first is how long to season the oak, which essentially involves letting the oak staves sit outside for a few years to dry them out and reduce some bitter characteristics. The second, is how intensely they toast the staves with flame, which is needed to bend them into shape. That toasting can transform the tannin and flavour compounds that the barrel will contribute. That's where some of the spicy, smoky flavours can originate from.
How we think about oak
At Vino Cammino, we are wary of too much oak influence. It's the key reason we've tended to lean more toward Italian reds utilising old large format oak. For white wines, where we focus more on France than Italy, it is more common for ageing to occur in stainless steel, or in large format old oak.
But while our style preference is for subtlety, the Vino Cammino collection spans the full range of oak influence, so there really is something for any taste. Below, we've pulled our range into categories based primarily on size and age of the oak barrels used for you to explore.
Mostly new and smaller format oak (highest oak influence)
Mix of format and barrel age
Mostly old and large format oak
No oak