I have a WE California Trinity Red Blend kit and I do plan on adding the oak "dust" as per instructions, but I think I'd also like to add some oak chips that I have as well. I have some American Oak medium toast chips that I typically use for spirits and wondering if anyone has used American Oak with this kit. Seems most in the world of wine use French. I'm thinking of adding about to oz right to the primary, or should I wait and add after my 1st racking? I'm open for suggestions.
Oak used during fermentation is largely sacrificial, giving up it's tannins in the process to bind with color molecules in the wine to aid in color retention, that's what the "oak dust" is probably intended for in your kit. If you are looking for oak to impart flavor into your wine, it is best used later in the process, after fermentation is complete. Depending upon what product you use, the time the oak needs to sit in the wine varies. Generally speaking, the smaller the oak pieces, the faster it gives up the goods, but the less refined the results are due to the length of the wood grain. Choose your oaking medium according to your desired outcome, dust, chips, beans, spirals, wine stix, barrels, etc., toast is a whole different conversation.
As far as wood species, French oak is much more tight grained than American oak, yielding finer textured wine with silky mouthfeel, while the American oak yields a little less refined mouthfeel, but sweeter and stronger oak taste with vanilla / creme soda type notes. Both are very good in my book, just different. The smaller oak adjuncts give up their taste in a few weeks, whereas the longer grained oak like wine stix can take 2-3 months, and barrels can take years depending upon the size.
Before switching to barrels, my preferred oak adjunct was wine stix, which I didn't put into the carboy until I had racked off of the fine lees at least once, that way the oak could stay in there undisturbed by racking activities. Regardless of the method you choose, regular tasting should be done, and oak removed when the oaky flavor is just a bit more than you would like in the finished wine, as it will fall off a bit while it's in the bottle.
