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he fashion for tannic and powerful oak is a thing of the past! “Our customers are looking for discreet oak, freshness and intense fruitiness. As much for white wines as for rosés and reds. And we are going in this direction with our woods for oenology”, notes Thomas Bioulou, director of Pronektar, belonging to the Radoux cooperage. Here is a selection of the latest innovations in this area.
The result of two years of research, Pronektar Finesse is Pronektar’s new stave. It is intended to bring sweetness and volume to white and red wines. “We selected the wood using the Oakscan process that we have been using at Radoux to select staves since 2010. We have recently been applying it to chips, staves or blocks. By infrared, we identify woods with a low tannin content. Then, we heat them slightly so that they provide sweetness but no vanillin or furfural”, explains Thomas Bioulou. On white wine, this new stave can be used both on Chardonnay and on thiolated grape varieties at the rate of one per hecto at the start of AF for better integration. On red wine, 2.5 staves must be added at the start of ageing.
At Nobile, a Laffort brand, the Gourmande range, created three years ago, continues to welcome new shavings. The youngest is Cherry Spice, released in 2020. “These shavings reveal the expression of black fruits by adding peppery and spicy notes. They also preserve freshness and bring a hint of sweetness on the attack. The contact time is 6 to 8 weeks” explains Chantal Bompas, Nobile brand manager. The Gourmande range comes from a specific toast whose parameters Nobile does not wish to reveal.
Still to preserve aromas and boost freshness, Boisé France launched two new products in 2021 for white and rosé wines: the #07.VO and #07.FR staves, in 7 and 20 mm thickness. “VO is very successful because it brings a lot of volume in the mouth, without any toasty or burnt aromas. FR works very well on hot vintages, to restore minerality and length in the mouth. The assembly of the two at 50/50 is also interesting depending on the wine. We support our customers to determine with them the best proportion » explains Paz Espejo, commercial director of Boisé France. Here too, we heat at low temperature, according to a process kept secret and we select the woods to obtain the desired effects.
For its part, Œnochêne relies heavily on its range of Quality One staves, made from French oak matured for 36 months in the park and intended for premium white, rosé and red wines. Since 2018, this supplier has released two 27 mm thick staves in this range: Tradition and Douceur. Minéral is the newcomer in this range. “With Minéral, we are looking to obtain minerality, especially on thiolated white grape varieties such as Sauvignon. The objective is that the wood accompanies the wine but does not mark it » explains Jérôme Baudin, oenologist and director of Œnochêne. Tradition and Douceur are more structuring and spicy to accentuate the fruit. These two staves are well suited to Chardonnay, Pinot or Syrah.
In addition to Minéral, Œnochêne is launching Easy Aging, a blend of oak tannins and yeast derivatives, to be added with staves from the Quality One range. “The goal is to reproduce the taste sensation of lees stirring in barrels. Easy Aging integrates the woody notes of the staves into the wine, so that we can gain a month of ageing. The dose is 3 to 10 g/hl for white and rosé wines and 10 to 20 g/hl for reds” indicates the oenologist. The aging time in staves is four to seven months for white and rosé wines and nine to twelve months for red wines.
Manufacturers of wood for oenology are not spared from rising production costs. “We face, like everyone else, the increasing costs of the gas we burn in our ovens, the bags that hold our products and transport. This is not advantageous for anyone, neither for us nor for our winegrower customers”, remarks Jérôme Baudin, from Œnochêne. In January, he raised the price of his products by 10 to 15%. At Boisé France, the increase was less than 10%. “In 2020, we installed 300 photovoltaic panels to power the electric ovens in our heating workshop. This has allowed us to reduce our energy consumption,” explains Paz Espejo of Boisé France.
