Using American Oak Wine Barrels to Complement Your Wines
Classic Oak Products are leaders in supplying American Oak barrels to Australian wineries.
Classic Oak Products is proud to offer Australian wineries with the opportunity to incorporate high-quality, hand-crafted American oak barrels and adjuncts for their winemaking production, supplied from distinguished partners of the TFF Group: Demptos Napa and Quercus.
American oak barrels provide a distinct difference to those made from European oaks. The structure of the wood from the North American oak tree, known as Quercus alba, allows for ageing under reduction conditions. American oak contains 5 to 10 times more aromatic compounds than European oak which produces a greater aromatic effect. In a blended barrel, the presence of 7 to 8 % American oak adds an oaky character and makes the wine softer and sweeter.
American oak is typically sourced and hand selected from private tree farms across the Unites States, including California, Virginia, Minnesota and Wisconsin. However, our supplier of American oak barrels, Demptos Napa, sources their oak exclusively from a very small region in Cuba, Southern Missouri, ensuring a consistent level of high-quality timber for barrel production.
The oak forest used to source Demptos Napa’s oak is less than 130 square kilometres. The staves are air dried on location for between 24 and 36 months in almost perfect conditions of wind, snow in winter, high rainfall, high humidity and good sunshine in summer. From this wood only the best staves with tight grain are selected to be coopered in the Napa. The result is an American oak wine barrel with fine complex structures complimenting the vanilla and oak notes making it suitable for use with many different grape varieties.
American oak must also be toasted at a heavier level to bring out similar odorous components to the wood of European Oak that have undergone a lighter toast. Therefore, Demptos Napa does not offer lighter toasts, instead offering Medium, Medium +, and Heavy toasting options.
Combining the best of French traditional cooperage techniques with modern production facilities, Demptos Napa specialises in the manufacture of premium 225 litre oak barrels using American oak. However, American oak can also be incorporated into the winemaking process in other ways. Quercus oak adjuncts give winemakers the control, quality and finish they desire with a choice of American, French or Hungarian oak. From chips, to bullets to sticks and staves, each and every piece is sustainably sourced, seasoned and toasted oak stavewood with the American oak being sourced directly from Minnesota and the Northern Midwest. Once air-dried for 36 months, robust tannins soften while retaining the integrity and character of American oak.
Whether oak barrels or adjuncts, the use of high quality American oak products allows winemakers to develop wine with complex aromatics that allow for their wine to stand out from the rest.
