Wood

A taste slightly reminiscent of wood, oak, vanilla, caramel, coffee or roasted and generally considered positive.

The still wines of some champagnes are also aged in oak barrels (barriques). The storage of wines in wooden barrels is called 'ageing'. Only the best oak wood from, for example, Allier, Nevers, and/or Taranceau (in France), as well as other areas in the USA and Russia, is used in the production of these 'barriques'.

The oak enriches the wine with valuable aromas and with tannin. In addition, the relatively small 'barriques' (225 litres) offer the wine a relatively large surface area (contact with the oxygen of the surrounding air) inside the barrel. In addition, the oak also 'breathes' naturally. The wine matures in these barrels in any case 'differently' (often decisively better!) than in a stainless steel tank. Wines whose aromas of this type seem a little too dominant are (negatively) described as 'over-aged'. This could possibly be due to the producer overusing wood chips in steel tanks instead of traditional oak barrels.

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