How should one oak their wines?
I buy light and medium toasted oak. I then toast the oak some more with a propane torch or in a pan (like one toasts pumpkin seed sin their youth) on the stove being careful not to burn it. This makes it taste fresher in my opinion and I really can get some unique flavor profiles with doing this. Rinse and soak in sulfite solution 50ppm prior to racking wine over the oak already placed in the carboy. we place the oak in the carboy first so it does not bubble up and can make sure all the oak comes in contact with the wine. We do stir the oak weekly to distibute the flavor throughout the wine.
