To oak, or not to oak (and if so how)

[ErikM]

I anticipate getting about 20 gallons of merlot must in the next month. I'll be aging in glass carboys, but I can't figure out if I should age it with oak (actually oak alternatives like cubes). How does a winemaker decide whether to oak or not? This is my first made-from-scratch red.

 

[Pumpkinman]

If I were you, I'd make this really interesting, since you will most likely be aging in 5 or 6 gallon carboys, you can oak some, and leave some unoaked, giving you two distinctly different wines!
I'd personally use oak infusion spirals, they impart the oak much slower than oak chips, with oak chips, it is easy to over oak a wine as they impart all of their oak flavors within a day or so. With the Spirals, you can taste the wine over a few days and decide what level of oak you prefer, just remember, oak tends to dissipate over time so don't be afraid to slightly over oak.
I'd use medium toast, it is a nice safe level of toast.
a bit off topic but if you plan on fermenting in 2 different batches, you could ferment with different yeasts as well, the wines would have different characteristics, and levels of complexities, I wish that I was doing this!!!!!!!!!!!
Let us know what you decide!

 

[Wiz]

I think that some wines beg to be oaked. I recently did an experiment over a couple of years using American, French, Hungarian and no oak in my cab sauv. made with Italian bulk concentrate. My test was done with cubes leaving in for 2 months. My choice was medium French oak cubes. The following year used the same different oaks in oak chips. I just wasn't happy with the chips and this year I will be using only medium French oak cubes.

 

[ErikM]

Thanks Tom and Wiz. I like the idea of two different batches. The comment about toast level was timely- it was another part of my dilemma.

 

[cmason1957]

I am going to throw in another variable you might want to consider. Some of the on-line vendors sell blends of oak cubes, some medium, some heavy, some french, some American. I have used the west coast blend in an old vine zinfandel and the bordeaux blend in a chambourcin. And that suggestion to almost over oak is a good one.

 

[Enologo]

For a Merlot I would vote to Oak. Again to your preference as others have stated. I would go French Medium Toast.