Oak Chips - are they a cheat?

[Craig Camp]

Europeans spit chips over oak in our wine

By Kirsty Needham, Consumer Writer

April 21 2003

It has been cast as a battle between old world and new. With Australian wine exports soaring, local winemakers say they are being targeted by rivals in France, Italy and Spain seeking to put a cork in the rising cheer of antipodean plonk with young European consumers.

The vignerons of Europe want to ban inexpensive Australian table wine by taking exception to the Australian practice of using oak chips, rather than pricey oak barrels, to flavour. The traditionalists also want more rigid definitions of labelling terms such as classic, vintage, reserve, hand-picked and traminer that could exclude Australian wine.

European Union trade negotiations to update a 1994 wine and spirits agreement with Australia have been cancelled.

"I think Europe is reacting to the success of Australian wine. They see the traditional winemaking techniques as a part of their culture," said Sam Tolley, general manager of the Australian Wine & Brandy Corporation. "All we are saying is don't make it a market access barrier if we choose to use new methods."

Australian wine exports are tipped to hit $2.5 billion this year, with around half sold to Europe. Britain is the biggest market, but Germany, Scandinavia and France are also growing.

Mr Tolley said placing oak chips in the vat, rather than aging in a barrel, had been accepted by the standards body, the Office of International Vine and Wine.

"We are enormous users of oak barrels in Australia, but where the product is high-volume wine produced with financial constraint, chips are used and it is just a different way," Mr Tolley said.

Alan Pollnitz, a chemist with the Australian Wine Research Institute, said he planned to publish in scientific and wine journals a study showing chips can "pretty much" be used as a substitute for barrels. French oak barrels, costing up to $1000, were "the second-most expensive thing that people pay for in wine making, yet so little research has been done".

"We seem to be targeted somewhat at the moment," said Mr Tolley. "But we think it would be difficult to outlaw because they are letting it in from other countries."

A member of the Federal Government's EU delegation played down the "pause" in talks, which would allow each side to reconsider its stance on labelling terms. New talks have not been scheduled.

From www.smu.com.au

[SFJoe]

Oak chips are perfectly OK as long as you combine them with microbullage to simulate the slow oxygenation through the barrel.

Joe

[tommy]

the use of oak chips, to me, suggests that the wine "maker" isn't going to use judicious amounts of oak, regardless of what the juice might need, and without regard for the final product, unless, of course, his/her goal is a final product that is overly oaked.

Edited April 21, 2003 by tommy (log)

[Claude Kolm/The Fine Wine Review]

I am aware of oak chips being (illegally) used by at least one very high profile producer of white Burgundies as far back as the 1980s.

To tell the truth, while I don't advocate the use of oak chips, I believe that their use is relatively benign. Unless grossly overdone, they are not going to badly distort the wine. There are other deformations, such as reverse osmosis and juicing the wine with liqueurs, that are far more worrisome. For cheap wines, they are a cheap way of inducing a marketable oak flavor-- if oak is what you, as a consumer, want.

Best regards,

Claude Kolm

The Fine Wine Review

[jhlurie]

The Europeans are a bunch of real crybabies.

[KatieLoeb]

I don't think it's a "cheat" if the winemaker is honest about the process. One could presume that a consumer that is educated enough to choose barrel aged wine vs. volume/mass produced plonk that's pumped over oak chips to simulate barrel aging is willing to pay the extra freight for the subtle nuances that imparts, and the implication of higher quality in general. But the other issue comes in the actual process and raw materials. Are the wine makers pumping their wine over Limousin French oak chips or American White oak chips? There's apparently been some recent experimentation with suspension of a single new oak plank in a barrel to impart oak flavoring. Is it scientifically proven that you're still achieving slow steady oxidation with your alternative "wine receptacle"? There's more to the barrel aging process than just the "oaky" flavor and vanillin it imparts to the wine. By taking the cheap alternative method, what other flavor and textural factors are being sacrificed? If the winemaker is trying to bring a "consumer friendly" taste to the general public at a more affordable price that's one thing. But if the winemaker is just flat out lying about it to make money at the hands of less educated consumers, then he/she should be tied to a dunking stool and dipped into a vat of their own low class swill!

[Rebel Rose]

In today's Mail & Guardian:

Even in France, where oak alternatives have been decried as blasphemous, vintners add wood blocks to wine under the pretence of weighing down sediment or filtering, according to Alicia McBride of Sonoma Valley company Innerstave, an oak-alternative company which claimed to have pioneered the method in 1979.

"Tradition runs so deep in wine that it is difficult for wine makers to go around telling people they didn't use barrels," McBride said.

Is it honest for French winemakers to insult the use of oak alternatives while secretly using them? Or is it nobody's business?

[bobferdon]

Oak chips, oak essence and overuse of oak are makeup.

A real ugly human needs lots of makeup.

The beautiful ones don't.

Same deal with grapes...

If you start with good ones you don't need the makeup.

[Craig Camp]

Oak chips, oak essence and overuse of oak are makeup.

A real ugly human needs lots of makeup.

The beautiful ones don't.

Same deal with grapes...

If you start with good ones you don't need the makeup.

←

These techniques are applied to grapes that need make-up. I know of no one exposing outstanding fruit from top-notch vineyards to these manipulations.

However, in the lower end, everyday wine end of the market, these methods help produce better wines. When used in moderation.

[Craig Camp]

In today's Mail & Guardian:

Even in France, where oak alternatives have been decried as blasphemous, vintners add wood blocks to wine under the pretence of weighing down sediment or filtering, according to Alicia McBride of Sonoma Valley company Innerstave, an oak-alternative company which claimed to have pioneered the method in 1979.

"Tradition runs so deep in wine that it is difficult for wine makers to go around telling people they didn't use barrels," McBride said.

Is it honest for French winemakers to insult the use of oak alternatives while secretly using them? Or is it nobody's business?

←

French producers are subject to far more regulation and control than new-world producers. They often have no choice to cheat a bit if they are to make better wine. The mass-produced wines of southern France certainly can benefit from many newly developed winemaking techniques.

[ludja]

In today's Mail & Guardian:

Even in France, where oak alternatives have been decried as blasphemous, vintners add wood blocks to wine under the pretence of weighing down sediment or filtering, according to Alicia McBride of Sonoma Valley company Innerstave, an oak-alternative company which claimed to have pioneered the method in 1979.

"Tradition runs so deep in wine that it is difficult for wine makers to go around telling people they didn't use barrels," McBride said.

Is it honest for French winemakers to insult the use of oak alternatives while secretly using them? Or is it nobody's business?

←

Apparently the French government is going to make honest winemakers out of those that choose to use woodchips.

France to Let Vintners use Woodshavings

PARIS - France's government said Wednesday it will soon allow vintners to flavor their wine with wood shavings — a moneysaving shortcut to help face off tough international competition, and a reform that immediately angered purists.

It was a sharp break in tradition: Flavoring wine with wood chips was, until recently, a technique that France's vintners were proud to have nothing to do with. But many vineyard owners, whose fortunes have flagged in recent years, now want access to the same techniques as their competitors.

For wines produced in the US, is there any regulation or required disclosure related to the use of wood chips or planks? Most of the articles above mention the use of chips in some Australian wines. Does anyone know how widespread the practice is in the US and if it extends to any premium wine producers?