Oak Notes 3: Toast Levels

Toasting

Early on, coopers learned the first lesson of making barrels:  it’s a lot easier to bend staves when they’re burning.  The second lesson was:  barrels that catch on fire are bad not just for your career progression but the cooperage itself.  Good way to trash a 20 year apprenticeship.

Thus began the art of toasting.   The next lesson was:  different amounts or levels of toasting can produce different wine flavors.   Understanding why this was so would have to wait until organic chemistry became a prerequisite in some education curricula and someone figured out the study of trans-oak lactones, 4-methylguaiacol and 5-methylfurfural had practical applications beyond impressing your parents that you actually were taking hard courses.

The fun and glamor or organic chemistry aside, the way coopers toast barrels can have as much influence on the finished wine as any other single components of its creation (according to researches at the University of Bordeaux).  Different toast levels release/suppress different oak chemicals in different ratios.  In other words - different toasts can make different wines better in different ways.

Light Toast:  Higher elagitannin concentrations with lots of tannin influence.   Restricted    vanilla.  Woody character.  Complex finish.

Good for:  wines that need tannin structure, limited aromatics.

Medium Toast: Very complex, toasted spices, vanilla, honey and chocolate.  Very well   rounded.  Moderate tannins.

Good for:  Most wines  additions of oak tones compliment a wide variety of wines.  The most natural oak impact of all toast levels.

Medium Plus:  Highly complex.  The most oak impact, roasted almonds, coffee, toffee, mocha

Good for:  wines with highly concentrated flavors.

Heavy Toast:  influence of vanilla, espresso, butterscotch and smoke. Silky tannins.

Good for:   wines that need a bold oak influence.  Spirits.

Rewine Barrels utilizes electro-convection heating elements to raise the temperature of the barrel above the point of vaporization of wine related chemicals and above the survival temperature of any possible biological contaminants.  Electro convection toasting  is longer, and deeper and gently releases, through thermal degradation of wood fibers, the cellulose related chemicals that contribute the unique oak characteristics winemakers are seeking.   Electro-convection toasting does not char wood fibers but still opens them up resulting very slightly quicker but smoother oak contribution.