GP Life: Drink - The secrets of oak-ageing wines.

The article presents information about age wines added with oak that induces flavor to wine. Sarah Bamford attended a wine fair as a merchant offering wines to taste rather than as a member of the public. One of these testings was mind-opening in the extreme. A specialist Spanish merchant presented two examples of the same wine. A single wine had been made, then part of it aged in old American oak barrels and part in new French oak barrels. First came the sample aged in old American oak. This wine had dominant characteristics of menthol, pine and grass.