WineXpert Red Mountain Cab Merlot & Cedar Idea

[slurve]

Thinking about my upcoming batch and recently became aware of the existence of Spanish cedar spirals. My kit looks to have shipped with heavy French chips/dust to be added in primary. If I were planning on aging post secondary with the cedar spirals, anyone have any thoughts on how to handle the initial oaking? My gut feeling is to skip it, combo could overpower the premium juice. Anyone have experience at all with the cedar spirals?

Thank you

 

[sour_grapes]

I'd think about trying the cedar with another wine first. Probably, it would be cheapest/easiest to use a cheapish commercial Cabernet for a trial. See if you like it cedared. (Oh, jeez, now I have to use "cedar" as a verb. Nooooo!)

 

[terroirdejeroir]

I agree it makes sense to test it out on something else first. It would be a shame to ruin/compromise one of the best kits on the market.

 

[SouthernChemist]

I have read before that sake is sometimes aged in cedar along with some styles of beer, but I have never heard of wine being aged with it. Part of oak's dominance is the relative ease in which you can make a barrel with it. But the other part involves how well oak flavors and tannins go with wine. Woods like chestnut are very high in tannins, and in fact chestnut barrels tend to be coated in wax to prevent real contact with the wood. Other woods like cherry will give off flavors and aromas.

I personally would experiment with cedar on a different wine. The cedar might add a nice note to the wine, but there's a possibility the result will not be positive.

 

[JMK]

This is where the 5gal/1gal carboy combo comes in handy. When I first started experimenting with oak additions on kits, I would keep 5 gal of wine per instructions and then use 1 gal carboy (5 bottles) to experiment with. This allows you to sample and compare the two wines over 5 different time frames, because the oak will change over time. Go for it and report back!

 

[knockabout]

I tested a wine in Italy last fall at Roscioli's that had a strong cedar taste. I assume from cedar barrels or stave. It was too strong a cedar flavor for me but its of the folks we were tasting with bought a few cases of that. It was a 2007 bressan Schioppettino if anyone wants to try a cedarish wine. It was certainly different.

 

[SouthernChemist]

I tested a wine in Italy last fall at Roscioli's that had a strong cedar taste. I assume from cedar barrels or stave. It was too strong a cedar flavor for me but its of the folks we were tasting with bought a few cases of that. It was a 2007 bressan Schioppettino if anyone wants to try a cedarish wine. It was certainly different.

Some reds (like Cabernet) can have notes of cedarwood from heavy oaking in barrels and/or extended aging.

 

[knockabout]

Yes I know that particular winery uses oak barrels (i just looked it up)so maybe just the terroir. Surprisingly strong though.

 

[tonyt]

I'm with JMK. try one gallon first.

 

[SouthernChemist]

Yes I know that particular winery uses oak barrels (i just looked it up)so maybe just the terroir. Surprisingly strong though.

It's certainly possible. I do think it's worthy of an experiment to see just what cedarwood would do. It might be beneficial in small amounts.