there's lots of different kinds of oak, but does oak really make wine softer on the palette, or just appear softer?

Same thing for spice and cedar notes. Is this from the oak barrel, or the wine?

American oak, French Oak, Solvenian Oak. Any summary of the characteristics of these would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Google "oak wine" and you find this rather good article on the subject on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_%28wine%29

Thanks Doug, good article

I have a three pack of 2005 O'Brien Merlot, one was aged in French, one in American and one in Hungarian Oak. I'm very interested seeing the differences between the three. It's a cool concept and I'm glad to have them. Probably open them all within the next year.

quote:

Originally posted by snipes:
I have a three pack of 2005 O'Brien Merlot, one was aged in French, one in American and one in Hungarian Oak. I'm very interested seeing the differences between the three. It's a cool concept and I'm glad to have them. Probably open them all within the next year.

Is the age of the barrel the same with all three?

All three barrels were new.

Also, many winemakers prefer to conduct alcholoic fermentation in barrel to begin imparting oak tannins and characteristics as soon as possible...