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OAK ALTERNATIVES Picking the flavors to build a program The Barrel Mill claims its spirals (above) extract faster than other alternative products. Oak Solutions evOAK Cuvee series comes in a ¯ variety of styles toasted to hit specific flavors. when choosing which barrels are best matched to his program. Renwood's Crippen recalled from his experience working at a large winery that one of its "secrets to success" was to fill a large tank with oak chips and then add wine. The saturated wine would be added back to lots in incremental doses to fine tune a wine. He said it was key step when producing a $2.99 bottle of Chardonnay. Michael Borboa has been with Bear Creek Winery in Lodi, Calif., for eight years and is currently the export winemaker. The winery is a custom-crush operation owned by the Kautz family, who also own Ironstone Vineyards. Borboa said the winery processed about 49,000 tons of fruit in 2012, about 60% of which is for domestic custom-crush clients. All the fruit is from the Lodi grape district, and almost all is from the Kautz family's 6,000 acres. Most of the wine Borboa makes is sent to Europe. He said clients come to the winery with a plan to craft a product for the tastes of a specific market. Borboa said drinkers in Sweden appear to prefer a good level of oak, while English consumers enjoy wines with a restrained oak presence. Borboa said he provides clients with samples of a base wine treated with a variety of different oak regimens, or he can offer them samples from a library of wines developed at Bear Creek's research winery. He said for a bulk winery of Bear Creek's size, alternatives are really the only option to deliver quality wine on time. "For our business, barrels are just not economically feasible," he said. Borboa said in his experience the quality of oak alternatives has steadily improved. EVQ_INCANTO CHIPS_COLOR tr.indd 1 He said he uses Oak Solutions' evOAK ¯ Cuvee 2 and 3 staves for red wines and Fine Northern Oak's tight-grain American oak for white wines. Borboa said he also really likes Vivelys' line of products because they can reach the coffee and dark flavor end of the spectrum without hitting char or burnt. He called Vivelys' DC310 chip a "home run" because of its "smoky, mocha character" that always does well in panel tastings. The quality has been matched in consistency, Borboa said. Now he can craft a wine profile and hit it every time, which is important to many clients who may start with one tank but require almost exponential growth if the wine is popular with consumers. Borboa said he would wager that most consumers wouldn't be able to perceive taste differences between wines matured in barrels versus wines aged with oak alternatives. He added that he also wouldn't be surprised if critics or those in the trade would be able to get it half right when presented with a flight of barrel- and stave-aged wines. And if the quality is there, winemakers are increasingly open about their use of staves because they believe in the quality, are looking to expand their winemaking style and offer affordable wines. Win es & Vi n es A13/02/13 12:27 PRI L 20 13 45