The aging of wine, whether in barrel or bottle, is an essential process to obtain a good stock.
Although aging in bottle is not strictly aging but rather a “shaping”, this process allows to smoothen aromas, acidity and tannins. After a long time in the bottle, usually about two years, we obtain the process of reduction (the contrary to oxygenation) which will provide the wine, previously aged in barrels, with aromas of snuff, leather, spices, undergrowth …
Oak aging, thanks to the porosity of this wood, is responsible for giving the wine aromas of minerals, cream, toasted nuts, vanilla… depending on the time that the wine remains in the barrel and the type of barrel used.
French oak is more expensive and porous than American oak and, therefore, provides the wine with vanilla and creamy notes.
American oak has more tannins than the French, and gives us roasted and toasted notes.
Russian oak is also also used, but to a lesser extent, which gives the wine mainly cedar flavors.
After the kind of aging, we should talk about aging time, but we’ll leave that for a future post.
