Oak?!

[jamesbsmith]

I love the idea of oaking up a red wine with smoked chips.

I made a plum wine, which I was planning on coming out as a red, and I added 7g of smoked oak "chips" (although they were more like a dust?). The wine didn't actually come out like a red, and much more like a rose.

Unfortunately, the chips ruined the wine (I know this as I made a gallon with and without, with the gallon without chips being great)!

I am wondering whether this may be down to the wine being a rose (and not suiting the smoked oak), maybe due to 7g being too much to use, or maybe due to the chips, which were more like dust, being the wrong product!

Any thoughts / experience would be very much welcomed!

 

[Yooper]

Usually, a wine has to be pretty bold to stand up to oaking, although there are exceptions. I'm not sure what product you used, but I use oak cubes or chips, and either American oak (which is harsher), French oak, or Hungarian oak (strongest), and a medium toast.

 

[Mikeymu]

I take it you wouldn't oak a peach wine then?

 

[porterpounder]

Try a different species of wood. Oak smoke is usually on the harsher side. Fruit woods or alder may lend a more delicate and pleasing smoke character.

 

[WVMJ]

So what happens when you blend the 2 different wines together in a glass? Nothing wrong with a little oak in a peach, little as in not really detectable and in the background. Is it the oak or the smokiness that is the main issue? WVMJ