Oak

[Thomas]

What ww refers to is wine aged in oak that is produced judiciously, which means not to hide faults and not just because the winemaker thinks wood is essential to the process.

I believe that wood use is a generally misunderstood phenomenon in winemaking. It was first employed as a storage devise--pure and simple, and it was the Gauls (French) who stamped it onto the West after the fall of Rome. In some cases, oak storage proved to "help" wines; then it became a winemaking technique. Now it threatens to become a winemaking disaster--at least in America and in Australia, with Chile on the sidelines.

If what ww says is correct, which it is, then most wines that are aged in oak are being released to the public too soon.