oak chips - how much to add

[Extreme Thinker]

Hi gang,

I've got a carboy full of french cab that has been aging for about 2 months. I purchased some medium toast french oak chips from George, but haven't added any yet. I would like to add some, and age for about 6 more months. What is a good amount to add by volume to this to get a nice medium oak flavor? 1/4 cup? 1/2 cup? 1 cup?

Thanks,

James

 

[Waldo]

Not sure what the conversion would be Extreme but I would recommend 3-4 ozs and begin tasting after 2 weeks to ensure you do not over oak it

 

[masta]

The chips I have weigh 1/2 oz per 1/4 cup and I would start with no more than 1 cup or 2 oz and the extraction is fairly quick with chips (2-3 weeks) due to the their surface area and since the wine is complete and you have plenty of alcohol. You can always add more but once it is over oaked you can't go back.

 

[kathy]

Just talked to a large commercial winery-the way they oak is to take a small amount of wine and oak it separatedly. This will be highly concentated. Then they add it back to the large container of wine until the taste is what they want. We tasted their chardonnay and it was the best I have every tasted. Just a hint of oak, not over bearing.
They also had a Strawberry wine that was just perfect. Quizzed them and they told me it was Chardonnay with Strawberry surrup flavoring. Will be trying that method instead of the strawberries from scratch. It is amazing the information from the wineries that is not public knowledge. Some are very easy to talk to and others are not.kathy