Using American Oak wine barrels to complement your wines
Classic Oak Products are leaders in supplying American Oak barrels to Australian wineries.
Our hand-crafted American oak barrels and adjuncts are supplied from the following brands
Oak is sourced and hand selected from high-quality private tree farms across the United States, including California, Virginia, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin. American oak, or quercus alba, is a different species compared to European grown oak.
Quercus alba contains high levels of vanillin, offering more sweeter flavours than French or Hungarian oak, with hints of vanilla, caramel and coconut. This oak is perfect for handling grapes with big flavours such as Zinfandel or Primitivo, Grenache and Tempranillo. While American oak is typically known for a looser grain, Demptos Napa provides barrels with a tighter grain than most. A tighter grain provides you with the opportunity to allow your wine to mature for longer, without the risk that it becomes overly oxidised.
American oak used across our cooperages is hand selected, with each tree marked for future harvest. Once collected, the planks are sent to seasoning yards where they are set aside and left outside to season for 36–48 months by our supplier Demptos Napa. Staves for barrels are cut to be wider in the middle with a slight taper towards the ends.
Demptos Napa sources its timber from a small region in Cuba, Southern Missouri, where the oak is seasoned through all weather types from wind, snow in winter, high rainfall, high humidity and abundance of sunshine. This results in an American oak wine barrel with fine complex structures complimenting the delicate vanilla and subtle oak notes. It is suitable for use with many different grape varieties.
The staves are then selected by the copper to ensure the tightest fit when assembled inside of an iron hoop that serves as an assembly jig. With this process the barrel begins to take shape and the staves are subjected to heat and humidity making the timber flexible and fitting into a cylindrical shape.
Heated with a flame for heat and sprayed with water to ensure the staves do not catch fire, the duration of this process referred to the toast level of each barrel. Toast levels offered from Demptos Napa include:
- Medium
- Medium +
