Oak, to a winemaker, is like salt and pepper to the master chef. It’s not the main ingredient, but it matters more than you think. Used right, you get a product of exceptional flavor and quality. Used incorrectly and you are pretty sure you’re switching to beer.
Of the top 100 wines in the world, virtually all of the red wines and plenty of whites are stored in oak barrels for all or part of their aging process. Why? Because it’s how we do things. For over 2000 years, since the Romans switched from clay to wood vessels for their wine to lighten the load for the soldiers, we’ve been drinking wine aged in oak barrels. It’s a good thing, too, as we seem to have developed a fancy for what it does to our favorite fermented grape juice.
