oak barrels

2012 Redux: Embracing the Chaos, The Science of Sour Beers

Tom Mansell
Features
1 min read
Editor's Note: Our Science Editor, Tom Mansell, explored the world of sour beers after a visit to the Great American Beer Festival. From fermentation to aging, Tom described sour beers as a bridge between the beer and wine worlds. This article is a must read for wine drinkers and beer drinkers alike who feel they just "don't get" the other side. –Ryan Reichert, Managing Editor

Putting Your Best Oak Forward: Diversity in the World of Barrels

Remy Charest
Features
7 min read
If you've never put your nose inside a few well-wrought barrels, it may be hard to understand just how excited winemakers can become about oak - and also, just how varied the contribution of oak to the profile of a wine can be. The range of smells, the different characters that jump at you, as you compare individual barrels, is simply astonishing.

Vino 2011: To Oak or Not To Oak

Fredric Koeppel
Features
6 min read
There’s a reason that the Italian Trade Commission has held an annual wine fair in New York since 2009. Imports of Italian wines to these shores have increased enough that in 2010 Italy surpassed France to reach a market share of 30.3 percent compared to 24.5 percent for France, a country whose position at the top of the import heap was unsullied for decades. No wonder that the phrase often repeated during VINO 2011, held at the Waldorf Astoria the last week of January, was that we are in “a golden age for Italian wine.”