Oak during Primary or Secondary

[RickC]

The instructions that come with wine kitshave you add all the oak during primary fermentation. It never has you save any back. Assuming no additional oak is added,I am curious to know if most follow that recommendation or do you often save some or all of the oak for secondary fermentation or bulk aging. With oak shavings I would always assumebest in primary because of the fast extraction but some only come with chips. 1-2 weeks isn't very long to extract the oak. I have a RJS EP Amarone in secondary right now after 14 days in primary. I placed all the oak in the primary. I'll taste on next transfer and add more if needed but just wondering.

 

[Wade E]

IMO with chips and dust or shavings the extraction is very quick. With cubes, spirals, or staves the surface to volume is far less and thats why it takes longer to extract the tannins and flavor.

 

[tonyt]

I use all provided oak as instructions indicate. Then I add my own if needed (almost always) in secondary and or aging. I will add cubes in secondary and or spirals or staves in aging. Just remember if you add extra oak to taste the wine every week or two and remove the oak when it gets where you like.