oaking Concord?

[Bobwhite]

Anyone oak concord wine if so tell me the type of oak and and amount of it

I'm going to bottle 3 gal of the 5 gallons I made and going to sweeten I gallon in a small carboy for those who like sweeter and wanting to oak a gallon just to see what its like

Any input would be great

 

[Bobwhite]

Also have 5 gallon of blackberry that's about 6 months and clear and may do the same with it just to learn what I like and don't like for futer wines

 

[LonelyMassachusetts]

I don't have any advice since I have never oaked either, but I'd really like to hear your side-by-side results; I make Concord from grapes every year.

 

[wineforfun]

Anyone oak concord wine if so tell me the type of oak and and amount of it

I'm going to bottle 3 gal of the 5 gallons I made and going to sweeten I gallon in a small carboy for those who like sweeter and wanting to oak a gallon just to see what its like

Any input would be great

I would have to look at my notes for exacts but I oaked a concord last year(made from Welchs). It was ok at best to me. I am a dry red drinker. I left the wine fairly dry, only backsweetened back to 1.002.
I believe I used 1.5oz. of medium French for two weeks, if I recall.
This was done to a 1 gal. carboy.

 

[salcoco]

I would be concerned that oaking Concord would overcome any of its fruit flavor. Having said that I made it dry by adding dried elderberries into the must and it would smell like Concord but taste like a regular red wine. try blending some dried elderberry in the wine instead of oak and see if it helps. I would do a small sample.

As far as blackberry 5 oz of oak cubes for 5 gallons should work. I prefer Hungarian oak.

 

[Bobwhite]

OK thank you very much this was hand picked concord and its pretty dry I like it the way it is but just trying to learn what else can be done

I do like the elderberry idea

I have some charged American oak and some medium toast american oak on hand what are your thoughts about those ?

 

[ceeaton]

I used 1.0 oz of a light American oak spiral on a 6 gallon batch that was 1/2 Concord and 1/2 Niagara from Welches concentrate. It has been in there for 6 weeks so far. From some stolen taste tests the fruitiness has not diminished (ie. you still know there is Concord in there), there is just another component that seems to be balancing it out a bit, as Concord can be a have a rather dominating flavor profile.

Now the wine still needs to be degassed, so there is still a prickly acidic taste. I did take a sample last night and put it in a small container I kept from an unsweetened tea product (washed well) and manually degassed it and stuck it in the fridge for about 1/2 hour to cool it a bit. It really has some possibilities. I'm thinking though it will be fall until I seriously consider degassing it the rest of the way and bottling it. I think 1 year aging will be the minimum, but it does taste like it has the promise of being a decent wine. I'm pondering whether I will need to backsweeten some of it for my wife or not, time will tell.

 

[Turock]

Oaked concord is very good. We use French medium toast, cubes or staves.

We also like making vanilla/concord using our own vanilla extract and anise concord using star anise.

 

[Bobwhite]

Thank you all so much for the input I will start light and go heaveir if I think it needs more