{"id":2461,"date":"2011-10-11T17:08:46","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T01:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wineintheshower.com\/?p=2461"},"modified":"2011-10-14T13:43:41","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T21:43:41","slug":"oak-trials-tasting-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/2011\/10\/11\/oak-trials-tasting-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Oak Trials: Tasting Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The oak trials<\/a> were bottled about 2 months ago now, and I’m ready to do a tasting of the panel.\u00a0 My husband has agreed to help me out, since there are 7 different wines<\/a> to taste.\u00a0 First is the unoaked Winexpert Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay<\/a>:\u00a0 dry, but not crisp, with subtle hints of apple and pear.\u00a0 The rest of the panel tasted as follows:<\/p>\n

Prefermentation American Oak (10 g\/gallon, 1 week exposure): Dry, but brings out citrus and vanilla flavors.\u00a0 Oak very subtle, but definitely detectable.<\/p>\n

Prefermentation French Oak (10 g\/gallon, 1 week exposure): oak is also very subtle, but adds to the flavor; seems to add more to the mid-palate than the prefermentation American oak.<\/p>\n

Post fermentation American oak (1 month exposure):\u00a0 Oak more perceptible, wine is more buttery with more vanilla; 10 grams per gallon oak definitely more intense oak flavors than 5 grams per gallon, and both more oak flavors than the prefermentation oak.\u00a0 10 grams per gallon post-fermentation oak is almost a little too much for the American oak, finishes flat with no mid-palate.<\/p>\n

Post fermentation French oak (1 month exposure): the most “pleasant” oak flavors to our palates.\u00a0 Smooth, rich mid-palate with cloves and cinnamon.\u00a0 Again, the 10 grams per gallon is almost a little too much, though with longer aging this may turn around.<\/p>\n

Our favorite is the post-fermentation 5 grams per gallon French oak, and we both prefer the French oak over American; it’s a more subtle, rounded oak influence than the American.\u00a0 However, I remember that at the Winemaker magazine conference in Santa Barbara, all of us at the table preferred the prefermentation oak samples.\u00a0 Tim used a different Chardonnay kit than I did, which could definitely influence our preferences.\u00a0 In fact, I’m sure if I did this trial with a zinfandel or cabernet, I would prefer American oak over French, based on how it compliments the varietal.<\/p>\n

It is very interesting to taste the difference between pre-fermentation oak and post-fermentation oak.\u00a0 The yeast metabolize the oak flavor molecules to yield a different flavor profile.\u00a0 However, this type of oak trial is quite an endeavor, and not something to do with every<\/em> wine!\u00a0 But, if you’re feeling ambitious, I highly recommend doing one on your own.\u00a0 Maybe try both a red and a white!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The oak trials were bottled about 2 months ago now, and I’m ready to do a tasting of the panel.\u00a0 My husband has agreed to help me out, since there are 7 different wines to taste.\u00a0 First is the unoaked Winexpert Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay:\u00a0 dry, but not crisp, with subtle hints of apple and pear.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[130,45,128,27,5,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2461"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2485,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions\/2485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/docker.vsl:8080\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}