Home Winemaking
Oak

Oak isn't necessary for wine. However, most home winemakers can't brew huge enough volumes of wine to fill up an oak wine barrel to age it that way. You can't partially fill a wine barrel (even if you had space for one) - the extra air would destroy the wine. Our alternative is to mix in oak flavoring. Don't worry - even some real wineries do this! This works well for normally oak-aged wines like Chianti.

Winemaking Equpment Listing
Winemaking Main Page