Malo and Oak

There is a decent sized contingent of wine drinkers for whom chardonnay is undesirable because of the “oaky taste”. When I seek to further clarify, the precise feature of dislike is its butteriness.

The buttery notes have little to do with oak, but can be accentuated by the barrel. They result from a second bacterial fermentation called malo-lactic fermentation or MLF, which happens when the harsh malic acids are converted into softer lactic acids.

This will naturally happen the cellar warms slightly in the spring. But it can be arrested if the wine is kept cold enough then filtered before bottling or with the addition of sulphur.

Almost all wines, red or white, will go through this process. Winemakers, especially in Champagne where higher acidity is one distinguishing factor, will run out of their cellar and tell anyone who will listen that their wines have not gone through MLF.

The perception of the presence of lactic acids can be augmented by spending time in a barrel and further still when the spent yeast cells are stirred up inside the barrel. This process is called bâtonnage and can provide naturally acidic wines the opportunity to soften up, become richer on the palate, and still retain the acidity that will help a wine age.

While MLF is the primary cause of the buttery flavour, aging in oak barrels can also enhance these notes. The type of oak can impart toasty, vanilla, and buttery flavours.

Broadly speaking there are two main types of oak barrels; French and American, though you can also find Hungarian, Slovenian and even Canadian barrels, among others. You can also find acacia and chestnut wood, but overall, oak is most common.

In general, French barrels provide more subtle undertones of smoky baking spices such as cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, and form the vinous framework for the best white wines on the planet, white burgundy, made from 100% chardonnay.

In contrast, American oak barrels bring bold, sweet, and intense flavours like vanilla and coconut, and sometimes even notes of caramel and chocolate to the wines. These will be stronger and more pronounced than anything a French oak barrel will provide.

Some 80% of American wines comes from California where it is much warmer, so the wines will have higher alcohol content. More warmth, equals more ripeness or sugar in the grapes, which translates to higher alcohol. Add these higher alcoholic wines to a boisterous American barrel and you come out with a very different wine than those the white burgundys they were trying to emulate.

Though there are exceptions, these are the types of wines that dominated the market and created the ABC drinker: Anything But Chardonnay.

Sometimes with higher alcohol, less malic acid and more sugar, the wines seem out of balance, akin to drinking a syrupy caramel flavouring rather than wine.

These wines, I feel, which were once wildly popular, gave chardonnay the bad name it has today. Overly oaked, highly alcoholic, sweet white wines that feel heavy are often hard to drink and simply are not at all refreshing like a wine should be.

The thinking might have been, if a little oak is good, a lot is better. Finding the perfect balance of French oak in the archetypal chardonnays of Burgundy has taken generations of vintages to perfect, a feat not easily copied.