The mystique of oak chips

Wines & Vines, Sept, 1996 by Larry Walker

Perhaps because of this lack of open exchange of information, the techniques for the use of oak chips are not as well established as some other common winemaking procedures. In a speech given by Phil Burton of Barrel Builders to the 1993 International Oak Symposium in San Francisco, he said that the use of oak chips was one of the cleanest ways to get oak flavoring into bulk wines, since it can be done in a stainless steel tank. However, "there remains much debate regarding the complex interplay between air, oak and wine and potential loss of character with short duration contact times."

Burton, who told Wines & Vines that the sale of oak chips in his business was brisk and increasing, suggested that wineries were adverse to admitting the use of chips because they were thought of as being associated only with wines of low quality. A second point is that for many years the use of oak chips was in a kind of legal never-never land. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had maintained that only untreated and uncharred chips could be used, but they never defined what constituted treatment. In 1993, BATF ruled that chips could be toasted but could not be any darker than the "color of American cigarette tobacco."

Burton points out that to his knowledge, "no one from BATF has ever investigated either suppliers or wineries to see if those standards are being met."

Perhaps BATF is as shy of dealing with oak chips as California winemakers. In researching this article, I began looking for sources willing to talk about how oak chips are used over two months before the date of publication. As of deadline, only one winemaker, to his great credit, was willing to share what he has learned in such a public forum, Dennis Martin of Fetzer Vineyards.

I learned of reports on the use of oak chips at various wine technical groups, of tastings comparing wines made with chips to wines made with the use of staves and wines getting full barrel treatment, but no one involved was willing to go public on chips.

Suppliers such as Bob Rogers of Innerstave and Phil Crantz of Cellulo reported good sales of oak chips - Rogers said they were about 20% of his overall business, mum's the word in winemaking circles. Rogers has seen his sales increase, even though he doesn't spend a lot of time marketing chips. "It's a word of mouth business. We've had a lot of good wine made from our product," he said. That would seem to be the most important point.

Which was exactly the point made by Martin. "We use chips in our Bel Arbor lines," he said, noting that the use of chips kept prices for the wine down and he thought the results were good. Martin uses American oak chips, medium toast. The chips are used in both red and white wines and are added at fermentation in the white wines.

Martin makes an extract by steeping about one pound of chips in one gallon of wine for two to four weeks, which gives the extract a strongly oaked vanilla, caramel tasting component. For red wines, chips are added to the tank after fermentation at a rate of about 15 pounds per thousand gallons. The chips are packed in bags hunters use for large game such as deer or elk and left in the tank for about a month, like a tea bag.

"It's pretty straight forward," Martin said. "We do various trials to reach the level of extract we want. The key is to get the vanilla character and find the right balance."

Martin was puzzled that other winemakers, especially those in the fighting varietal category, are unwilling to talk about chips. "They are a wonderful tool for wines at that price point," he said.

Oak chips, both French and American, are available from a number of suppliers at several toast levels, including coopers. Bill Monroe of World Cooperage called oak chips a "kind of windfall part of our business." World Cooperage sells two varieties of chips, a chip about the size and consistency of corn flakes and a finer chip, slightly coarser than sawdust.

"Since we have our own stave mills - one in France and one in the Ozarks - we have access to a lot of air-dried wood. We use the waste products from staves that have been dried for two years," he said.

World Cooperage produces two standard toast levels, a medium and heavy grade. The chips are toasted in a large drum dryer which has a series of pipes inside the drum. The chips are blown through the pipes to achieve a different toast level, making it possible to toast in large quantities and get a consistency of toast, Monroe said.

Monroe said World Cooperage sells "several hundred thousand pounds of chips" every year. "What we are finding is the use of chips and other alternatives to add flavor to the wine is increasing."

Monroe said that the use of toasted boards (which World Cooperage also sells) is also becoming more popular and, because the boards can be used up to four times, according to Monroe, they are almost as cost effective as chips and make cleanup of the wine much easier.

At World Cooperage, 500 oak boards can be toasted in a series of racks within what looks like a large pizza oven. A wood burning furnace forces heat through the oven and caramelizes the boards.