Applications of natural ingredients in alcoholic drinks - Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings - page 376

Fig. 16.7 Typical compounds leached into wine from oak wood (fl avour note for volatile

compounds in parentheses).

The practice of adding oak powder, chips or staves to a fermenting or maturing
wine in glass, stainless steel or lined concrete is known as 'oaking', and such wines
in many parts of the world may be labelled 'oaked' or 'fumé', but not 'aged in oak'.
Chips are the most common source of oak fl avour, often added in an infusion bag.
The fl avour characteristics of wine derived from contact with the three major oak
types are summarised in Table 16.9, but when using oak chips, high-toasted
American white oak chips tend to be most effective. Although oaking gives wine a
defi nite oak fl avour profi le, for red wines, it is closer to a wine genuinely aged only
briefl y (say, up to six months) in oak casks - the profi le associated with an extensively

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Table 16.9 Some fl avouring characteristics of major oak wood used to fl avour wine

Type of oak Concentrations of compounds leached into wine

Volatile phenolic
compounds

Non-volatile
phenolic compounds
('tannins')

Odorous lactones

Quercus robur (French
pendunculate oak)

Low Fairly high Low

Quercus sessilis (French
sessile oak)

Fairly high Low Fairly high

Quercus alba (American
white oak)

High Low High