By Brooke Gowen There are a million factors that go into the finished product that is wine. Some are beyond a producer’s control (such as bad weather, pests and insects, diseases, etc.), and others are completely controlled by the winemaker: grape harvesting times, the fermentation and ageing process, and myriad other vinification techniques. Today, let’s [...]

A whole lot of discussion goes on at wine tastings about oak: how long one particular wine was aged in oak; did the ageing occur in new American oak barrels; or were they French barriques (standard casks which holds 225 litres, or 300 bottles)? But, what does it all mean?