# No Cubes when Oaking?



## whynot (Jan 23, 2014)

So I racked my WE Eclipse Old Vine Zin yesterday, This will be the first batch to go into my barrel. At this stage the instructions call for putting in the oak cubes, which I did not.. (sine I'll be barrel ageing).. 

Just curious if anyone disagrees and would put the cubes in now also, and why?


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## Boatboy24 (Jan 23, 2014)

Save them for down the road, when your barrel is neutral.


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## thunderhill (Jan 23, 2014)

Thanks for bringing the topic up. I recently tasted a really good commercial Zinn that was fermented in oak buckets. They then aged the wine in old whiskey barrels. Has anyone ever tried this method. (bucket only) I did a little web search and found a site that sells eastern European oak buckets. I could not determine if they also sold lids.

Keep warm, its 11 degrees here in PA.


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## tonyt (Jan 23, 2014)

Whynot, don't add the oak cubes in the barrel. If the barrel doesn't impart enough oak you can use the cubes in glass carboy while further aging after racking from the barrel. Otherwise you can save the cubes for another kit.


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## whynot (Feb 3, 2014)

asked in another thread, but thought it worth it to ask here also, new kit (CC Red Mountain Cab), came with oak shavings (2 packs) and cubes, says to put the powder in during primary ferm.. I didn't because it's going in the vadai, but I'm thinking it should be OK to put them in now right? 10 days in ferm shouldn't "over oak" it?...

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## tonyt (Feb 3, 2014)

I use dust and shavings I'm primary. Cubes in secondary if I want to layer oaks. No other oak till after barrel aging. Then spirals in carboy if more oak is needed.

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## richmke (Feb 4, 2014)

whynot said:


> came with oak shavings (2 packs) ... says to put the powder in during primary ferm. ... OK to put them in now right? 10 days in ferm shouldn't "over oak" it?...



It should get all the oak out of the dust in a week. You could leave the dust in for a year, and it would not add any more oak. No risk of over oaking.


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## JohnT (Feb 5, 2014)

The way I see it, you run the risk of over-oaking your wine if you were to use both. Barrel age your wine first (for 5 - 8 weeks, depending on your tastes). You could simply keep it in the barrel even longer if you need more oak.


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## whynot (Feb 6, 2014)

We'll I put them in. We'll see .. I will be ageing this for a while, so it will soften over time. I have not experience as I'm new to this, but from what I've read and how my head works, it should not come out "over oaked"..10days of shavings, and a few weeks in the barrel ageing..


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