Last week, the Ideal Wine Company
heard of the launch of a new experiment that could answer a question we’ve been
asking for years; does oak
have an influence on a wine’s aroma?
This Vintage is ‘Oaky.’
When we’re describing one of the
bottles of fine wine that we offer to you at very reasonable prices, Ideal Wine
Company does sometimes resort to the same type of language that most in the wine
industry rely on every time they’re confronted with the task of writing a new
blurb.
One of the most commonly used
words to describe a stellar vintage is ‘oaky.’ Yet can a wine really have
accents of oak? Does lying in a barrel actually add to its flavour and aroma?
We’ve never really known the answer, but thanks to a man commonly heralded as
the ‘nose of Bordeaux,’ that answer may finally be in reach.
An Unnamed Cellar in Bordeaux
According to Decanter, winery
consultant and trained perfumer Alexandre Schmitt has kicked off a three year
experiment designed to determine whether oak barrels have an effect on the
aroma of the wine they’re used to store.
Keeping various wines under the
same conditions in an unnamed cellar in Bordeaux, Schmitt, along with barrel
maker Charlois, will conduct a serious of tests to determine the effect different
oak treatments have on their aroma. Initial tests will be performed on 40
barrels of Merlot 2014; this will progress to 60 barrels for the 2015 vintage,
and 80 barrels for the 2016 label.
Choose the Exact Barrels Best Suited to Them
Charlois holds hopes that this
experiment will provide them with the knowledge they need to exert more control
over the effect oak treatments have on the aroma of wine. Charlois’ Group
President, Sylvain Charlois, expanded by explaining:
“The molecules transmitted to wine by oak are known, but how they are
affected by how the barrel is made, the width of the grain, the method and
level of toasting, or the provenance of the oak is less known. We want to
develop a molecular reference so our clients can choose exactly the barrels
best suited to them.”
An Answer Three Years in the Making
Honestly, at the Ideal Wine Company we’re pretty curious to see how this
experiment turns out. Yes, we know that oak has some influence on the aroma of
a fine wine, but we don’t really know what that influence is. Maybe in three
years’ time, we will.
