Jargon Busting- “Oak” Characters in Wine
Our lovewine guru, Sam Kim sheds some light on the real meaning behind some confusing wine terminology.
You can’t help but come across ‘oak’ and oak-related flavour descriptions when reading wine tasting notes. It is seemingly straight forward when it comes to describing oak flavour – it should smells like wood, right? Yes, but much more.
First, oak is an integral part of modern winemaking. The primary purpose of putting wine into oak barrel is to harmonise flavours, much like the simmering process in cooking stews – you’ve done the initial browning the meat, sweat the onions and added stock etc., and it needs slow cooking to develop and harmonise all the flavours. Oak maturation is similar. After the initial fermentation, some wines (many chardonnays and most reds) need this settling down period and integrate flavours and develop mouthfeel. During this time the wine just happens to pick up oak flavours if it is matured in relatively new oak barrels.
So what are the oak flavour descriptions that we use in tasting notes, and why are they different?
Oak: The general descriptor you can use when you can’t come up with clever words. A wine smells like wood shaving, cedar or carpenter’s shop. ‘Oaky’ usually denotes a wine showing strong woody smell. If you find the oak flavour moderate, you can use words such as ‘elegant’, ‘subtle’, ‘gentle’, ‘refined’ in front of ‘oak’, which sounds a lot better.
Toasty: The inside of an oak barrel can be ‘toasted’ or slightly burned/charred during making of the barrel. And therefore wine matured in these toasted barrels may display smell reminiscent of ‘toasted Vogel’s’.
Nutty: Similar to ‘toasty’ but the smell reminds you of roasted nuts, cashew, hazelnut, etc. rather than toast.
Vanilla: Vanillin is one of many compounds found in oak, and gets dissolved into wine during barrel maturation, especially from new barrels.
Smoky: Almost same as ‘toasty’ but more like burnt toast rather than the perfect medium-brown. Probably a result of wine matured in heavy-toasted barrel. Also certain grape varieties and winemaking techniques (other than oak maturation) can impart this smoky note.
Caramel/Toffee: A combination of ripe grapes, buttery/creamy characters from malolactic fermentation (will talk about this another day), and use of toasted barrel can produce this caramel/toffee/brown sugar-like smell. Not desirable in high quality wine but many consumers love these flavours, especially in Chardonnay.
Chocolate: My wife, who is a keen chocolate consumer, does not find chocolate characters in red wine. However, you do see ‘chocolate’ used in tasting notes. Of course they don’t add chocolate in wine but when ripe red grape/juice is fermented in new oak barrels, it can produce flavours similar to that of dark chocolate.
These are some of the more widely used terms that relate to oak flavours. Some writers do get a bit carried away with jargons and make a wine sounds more like a spice rack rather than a drink. But it is useful to know and familiarise some of these words which can help you to articulate what you are tasting.
But be careful, you could sound like a real wine snob if you use too many jargons at once. For example, if you find yourself saying, “I just love the use of stylish oak in this wine. I can tell it’s the top quality French oak from Limousin forest. The gentle oak influence whispers rather than screams – clearly the oak’s been air dried for two years. Don’t you just love the subtle vanilla and roasted cashew notes which are beautifully infused with the mango and guava flavours so typical of that vineyard”, then you’ve gone to the Dark Side already.
Article by our lovewine guru Sam Kim, WineOrbit
Tags: Sam Kim, wine words, wine learning, Chardonnay, Oak, Caramel, Toasty, Nutty, wine, New Zealand Wine, Wine Orbit
Category: Jargon Busting
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