A couple oaking questions

[bigeasy]

Hello all, I have a couple questions regarding oaking during bulk aging a kit.

I'm moving a WE Selection merlot to bulk aging today or tomorrow and I intend to oak with French toast plus cubes. I intend to just give them a light rinse to remove any dust and rack onto them in the carboy.

I also have an Eclipse Cab in process that calls for adding the cubes during step 3 and leaving them in for 8 days. The instructions with my French cubes calls for a minimum contact time of 8 weeks and up to a year. Am I going to create an oak bomb with 8 weeks of contact time? Should I taste the wine at say, 2 weeks then proceed from there or is 8 weeks a safe starting point for tasting?

How long do you generally age on cubes?

Thanks for any replies. If you see any issues with my plan please speak up.

 

[GaDawg]

6 weeks, but taste every couple of weeks

 

[Flem]

No need to rinse your oak cubes. They are just fine. It takes quite a while to impart the oak flavor with the package of oak cubes they give you. While it depends on your taste in oak, I think 8 weeks is fine for starters. Good luck!

 

[djrockinsteve]

The oak flavor is added during the first months contact. I add to 5 gallons of Merlots and cab sauvs 8-10 ounces of chips by weight and age it in the wine a year. Not over oaked.

What little sediment you get will be left behind when you rack next time.

 

[bigeasy]

Thanks guys. I added 2.5 ozs French med toast plus cubes. I expect this will turn out at least as good as the cheap wine I'm used to drinking.

 

[cimbaliw]

In my limited experience, the oak flavor peaks at the 4-8 week range then begins to integrate and mellow. As for the Eclipse Cab, I hold off on oaking until step 4, let it set for 1-2 months then bottle. Doing so saves me from having to retrieve the cubes from step 3 only to add them back during step 4 (to get additional oaking time).

 

[bigeasy]

Thanks. I had pretty much decided to bulk age the Eclipse cab on the cubes provided or split them 30 gr in secondary then 60 gr bulk.

 

[ShawnDTurner]

Big easy. You can also use different oak as well. Hungarian plays very well with merlot. So after you French toast the merlot. If you think you need More go with Hungarian. It will a different dimension to your wine.

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