If you are a winemaker contemplating using oak adjuncts, or oak alternatives, there are many advantages as to why you should incorporate them into your winemaking process.
While using oak barrels is popular, winemakers understand the high cost of new oak barrels must consider the final margin available when the wine is sold. Cost coupled with increased control resulting from use of stainless steel tanks, including better temperature control have supported the use of oak adjuncts. Oak adjuncts in steel tanks introduce an oak element early under circumstances that are more controlled. The use of oak adjuncts during élevage, is complemented when micro-oxygenation also comes into play to mimic the gentle aeration of wine in barrels.
With the variety in timing, toast level, and type of oak adjuncts, there are a significant number of options available to winemakers today.
There are many other implications of using oak adjuncts that benefit more than just the wine. They offer incredible cost savings compared to purchasing new French oak or American oak barrels. They are an environmentally sustainable choice because they use other parts of the tree that are otherwise unsuitable for barrel stave production.
Quercus oak products give winemakers the control, quality and finish they desire. Quercus offers a great variety of high quality oak adjunct products, including oak chips, bullets, sticks and staves. Each and every piece is sustainably sourced, seasoned and toasted oak stavewood.
Quercus has great respect for the oak forests that provide our wood, and the utmost care is taken for the continued health and sustainability of these forests. Only oak adjuncts of this quality can achieve the degree of character and structure desired by winemakers. It is only by understanding the origins of our products that we can maintain the quality, consistency and reliability of every product in the Quercus range.
