What an Oak Percentage Tells You
Updated: 4 days ago
Clos Ostler Caroline’s Pinot Noir 2021 magnum beside its wooden presentation box.
Caroline’s 2021 spent fifteen months in French oak barriques, twenty per cent of them new. In the glass, damson and black cherry mingle with clove, dried thyme and sage, carried by fine, supple tannins. The cellar figures sit behind that experience, but the wine is far more revealing than the percentage on its own.
New oak is often one of the first things people ask about. It gives an indication of how a wine was raised, although two wines matured in the same proportion of new barrels can feel quite different. The wood, the cooper’s work and the character of the harvest all have a part in what eventually reaches the glass.
Before wine enters the barrel
Long before a barrel reaches the cellar, its character is taking shape. A cooper selects the wood and its grain, leaves the staves to season in the open air, then bends and toasts them with heat. Each choice influences the vessel in which the wine will spend the next part of its life.
Taransaud, the French cooper, describes this preparation in detail, from grain selection and seasoning to controlled heating and toasting. By the time a barrel is filled, years of work may already lie behind it. The words “French oak” encompass all of those decisions.
Fifteen months with Caroline’s
For Caroline’s 2021, most of the barrels had held wine before. Alongside the smaller proportion of new wood, they gave the wine fifteen months to develop before bottling. The wine changes throughout its stay in the cellar, making duration as important as the share of new barrels.
The harvest brought its own depth. A warm, dry summer and persistent westerlies produced small, concentrated berries. In the wine, clove sits alongside thyme and sage, with damson and black cherry remaining clear through the supple texture. These aromas are closely woven, and the pleasure lies in how comfortably they sit together.
Oak in the glass
A good place to begin is with the fruit. In Caroline’s 2021, the damson and cherry remain distinct as spice and dried herbs emerge around them. Fine tannins hold the wine together, with flavour remaining well beyond the first impression of fruit.
It can be revealing to taste before reading the technical sheet. A higher new-oak figure may be less conspicuous than expected; a lower one may still leave a clear impression. Returning to the figures afterwards allows them to explain something you have tasted.
Caroline’s is our reflection of a season through all five Pinot Noir clones. The barrel choices serve that purpose. When we open the 2021, it is the dark fruit, the dried herbs and the supple feel that we return to, and the prospect of seeing how they develop together over the coming years.
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