🍷 Oak chips
Pieces of oak in a tank instead of a barrel, a cheap way to get an oaky taste.
Oak chips are small pieces of oak put into a tank of wine instead of a barrel. They give the wine an oaky taste: vanilla, coconut, toast, spice. It is a quick and cheap way to get that aroma.
An oak barrel is expensive, takes up space and lasts only a few years. Chips are poured into the tank in cloth bags and left for a few weeks, then removed. They come in different toast levels and sizes, from fine shavings to large planks and sticks. The wine stays in the steel tank.
Chips do not replace the barrel fully. A barrel slowly lets air through, and wine in it matures and softens. A steel tank with chips lacks this, so the oak taste is simpler and brighter.
Oak chips belong to oak ageing, like the barrel. The rules for their use depend on the country and the wine category. The label usually does not say that the wine was aged on chips.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Oak chips → then → 🍷 Oak barrel ← packed in ← 🍷 Wine
Links
- Next step
- 🍷 Oak barrel
- Part of
- 🏷️ Oak ageing
Frequently asked questions
What are oak chips in winemaking?
Pieces of oak put into a tank of wine to give it an oaky taste.
How are chips different from a barrel?
Chips are cheaper and faster, but do not give the slow contact with air that a barrel does.
How can you tell that a wine was aged on chips?
This is usually not stated on the label; it is most often done for inexpensive wines.