Italian Barbaresco wine kit - oak or no oak?

[backphish]

I just started a Reserve Du Chateau 6 Week Wine Kit, Italian Barbaresco. I've never done this kit before, I really only went with this one because I was able to get free shipping to Hawaii on it through Amazon so I thought it worth giving a try.

It did not come with any oak (I am not sure if it was supposed to because other items were missing from the kit and the instructions were generic kit instructions), but I was wondering if I should oak it anyway when I transfer to secondary. Barbaresco wines are supposed to be very tannic when young, so I'm not quit sure I need to add any oak even though I plan on a minimum six months aging before bottling.

I always have oak cubes lying around from other wine or beer projects.

 

[DoctorCAD]

What was missing?

All kits come with generic instructions, at least every one I have made.

Oak is always a personal thing, but that wine is supposed to be "fruity" so I'd take it easy on the oak.

 

[corkpuller]

I personally hate oak on Nebbiolo. Time is the best way to mellow tannin.

Something else to consider is that Nebbiolo is very prone to showing Volatile Acidity & Ethyl Acetate. Keeping your cap submerged and the edges of your vessel clean will go a long way to reducing VA & EA.

Good luck!

 

[backphish]

thanks for the advice. I'm going to skip the oak and assume that none was supposed to be included in the kit.

The kit was supposed to include labels, corks, etc. for bottling but not everything was there so I couldn't tell from the generic kit directions if oak was supposed to be included or not (since all kits say something along the lines of "if your kit included oak, then toss it in there....).