Hola Joe! Many thanks for your comments. My apologies for not getting back to you earlier. I’m not as yet in the habit of looking out for any comments that come in when I’ve written a blog – your comment here has made me realise this, so thank you. I will endeavour to do this from now on!

I agree with your comments about rushing the wine out of the cellars and onto the market, though I don’t think this is so prevalent here in Spain. There are plenty of wines on the Spanish market but I’m not sure that there are that many that are released before their due date. It seems to me that it’s the winemakers that still hold the power here, with the commercial people having play second fiddle. I would say that in most cases the wine is only released when the winemaker deems that it should be. However, I’m sure there will be perhaps heated discussions on this which may result in a compromise that keeps both factions just about happy, though maybe not the consumer who buys the wine when it first hits the shelves?

It’s an interesting point re labeling. I’ve often said that bin my view the all-powerful DOs have too big an influence. As you know from your travels, up to a point winemakers in ‘the New World’ can do virtually anything they want without the fear of red tape tying their hands together.

However in this particular case I believe there is a need, a duty, even, to keep the consumer properly informed regarding the oak influence in the wine she/he is considering buying. As I understand it a label can only legally say that the wine has been aged in oak barrels, if it actually has been. However, I think our marketing friends are at liberty to say oak aged when in fact they mean ‘oak influenced’ (probably oak chippings or staves) although the fact that the wine spends a week/month/more? in the tank in contact with these chippings/staves could mean that it has indeed been aged with oak, albeit for a short time.

Spraying the grapes with oak essence and or injecting yeasts with a version of the same, is a different matter – I believe. There should, I think, be reference to this fact on the bottle. Though how this can be ‘policed’ and indeed if this would be legal I am unsure.

There are of course many wine drinkers who actually don’t care, and it could be argued, why should they?! If the wine tastes good and has an element of oak on the nose and the palate why should they worry how the ‘oak’ has arrived, the more so if this keeps down the cost of their bottle of wine! Provided of course that such wines are approved by the health authorities.

Me, well I’m in the traditionalist camp on this one – for me an ‘oaked wine’ should have had time peacefully resting in barrels in the quiet, dimly lit, temperature and humidity controlled (naturally, where possible? depths of the cellar!

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Many thanks again, Joe – hope to see you at another wine event soon!

Saludos,

Colin