oaked wine test

[wondersofwine]

With red wines you could try an oaky Archery Summit Pinot Noir (expensive and I think they waste excellent fruit by overoaking) versus a Steele Carneros Pinot Noir or a Saintsbury Garnet Pinot Noir. Archery Summit uses 90% new French oak barrels for aging their Arcus Estate Pinot Noir.

You could try to get a Trevor Jones "Virgin" Chardonnay from Australia (unoaked) and compare to an oaked California Chardonnay such as Geyser Peak Chardonnay (or with a subtly oaked Australian Chardonnay such as Penny's Hill.) There are all kinds of gradations of oak treatment. One of the wine books suggests comparing California Chardonnay to French Chablis (unoaked) but Chablis can be expensive if you are just starting out on exploring wine. Some of the character an oaked Chardonnay may exhibit is flavor of a toothpick, or smoke, or more subtle buttery or vanilla or butterscotch or nutlike nuances. I like a touch of the vanilla or butterscotch (especially in white Burgundies) as long as it doesn't dominate to the point of unbalance with the fruit.

[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 12-15-2006).]