How are the Barrels from Different American Forests Perceived?
In 1996 Nadalie, USA commenced a large multi-winery, multi-year investigation into the impact and perception of characteristics produced by barrels from American forests on wines made in California. It is an extensive, complex study, with extensive complex results. I have taken my impression of those results together with my experience with Eastern wines, and truncated the table above. My scale for Oak Impact is arbitrary. 10 is some noticeable pleasing addition to the wine, 18 is a very noticeable pleasing addition.American oak is becoming a more highly used tool to bring out the best characters of wines, not only in theEastern United States, but even more so in California wineries. With the understanding of the impacts of American oaks and European oaks, winemakers can bring their wines to the highest quality more quickly, easily and surely. American oak is sort of a misunderstood new kid on the block with many capabilities that are slowly being discovered. It is no wonder that Frenc
