Adding Oak Cubes

[pracz]

Hi -

I am thinking of adding some oak cubes to my MM Renaissance Old Vine Cabernet. It has been bulk aging for about 2 months. It is clear and ready to filter. I want to bulk age for another month before bottling. Do you think it is okay to add oak cubes at this stage? Because I already used the clarifiers, will the addition of cubes cloud the wine?

Thanks for the advise!

Pete

 

[AlFulchino]

leave some head room..i have seen some wines foam up at the addition,,,more so w oak shavings than cubes..but it does happen

typically i add oak, and let it age before adding clarifiers

 

[JimCook]

Pete,


If you are adding the cubes, there will undoubtedly be some oak dust on them. However, note that the size of this wood residue is generally large when compared to the other little solids that are cloudiness culprits. So, the oak should settle outand since you mentioned you were going to filter the wine, these bits should be caught in the filter prior to bottling.


Please don't set a 'time table' for the oak - let it do it's thing and use your own taste as the guide for when the oaking levels are at a happy point for you. I also recommend only adding a part of the oak cubes that come in the packet (seal the rest in a Ziploc bag for another kit) - perhaps only 36 or so cubes (roughly one ounce) or even less depending on the wine you are oaking and if you used the provided kit oak.


From my own personal experience, I've not noticed any cloudiness from adding oak cubes to a wine, clarified or not.


- Jim

 

[RJMehr]

Pete,

I would add the oak cubes now (1-2 oz) and then taste the wine every week.

Last year was my first year of winemaking and I added 3-4 oz. of oak cubes to many of my wine kits. I did not check them until 3-4 months later and I now have some very over oaked wines.

I also would recommend French or Hungarian oak cubes. I found the American oak to be very powerful, not my cup of tea.

You can always add more oak if the 1-2 oz. is not enough but as I found out, overoaked wine is not very good.

Robert