NJ Winemaking School - The Grape Escape - News

New Barrel Options!

We are very proud to announce the introduction of barrel choices this year.

In 2006, The Grape Escape was proud to announce that we were the first and only hands-on winery to offer you so many grape choices from different regions. For the Fall Season, we introduced three product lines...Grand Cru, Premier Cru and Grand Premier Cru.

While there are other determinants of a wine’s quality, such as the vineyard and the skill of the winemaker, the period of up to several years in wooden “cooperage” or barrels has a significant influence on the ultimate character of the wine.

We are very proud to announce the introduction of barrel choices this year. You will be able to choose from the following three barrel choices:

American Oak

The oak comes from Wisconsin and is made in Kentucky. The Grape Escape specifically chose this particular oak from Wisconsin due to it's delicate oak toast and the quality of the oak. This is our standard oak barrel for any of the wines you choose. American oak has a more aggressive mouthfeel and immediately apparent aroma. American oak contains more vanillin (vanilla aroma) and more odorous compounds. While French Oak is still considered the Rolls Royce of wine barrels, American Oak has made huge strides in quality and market share. More and more California vintners are choosing American over French...not just because of price but because of flavor.

Hungarian Oak

Hungarian Oak offers our customers an excellent middle of the road choice...although it would be described in its flavor to more closely resemble French oak. The oak is grown in Bulgaria, a country nested in the southern corner of Eastern Europe. Grown in favorable slow-growth conditions, the oak’s vessels form the necessary occlusions with tyloses, which contributes to flavor formation and a low incidence of though-stave leakages. The tannins of Bulgarian oak are soft and deep, and are very similar to those found in French oak.

French Oak

French oak contains more tannins and flavor components and has a less obviously “oaky” flavor and smell than American oak. French white oak is harvested from several different forests in France. The most common forests are Limousin, Alliers, Vosges, Troncais and Nevers, each producing oak that imparts slightly different nuances of flavor to the wine. The tightness of the grain, which determines the rate of extraction of these flavors, also varies among forests. French oak is typically made by hand and cut with the grain as opposed to machine made barrels. This process is time consuming but adds to the overall quality. The French have mastered the way to age barrels to impart just the perfect flavors.

Why Oak?

Historically, the type of wood the winemaker chose was a question of tradition, wine variety, economics and personal taste. Redwood was commonly used in the construction of puncheons or uprights many times larger than the traditional 60-gallon oak barrel. But it is no longer used because it is too rigid to allow bending of the staves and it imparts a yellow tint to the wine. Chestnut, although high in tannin, is too porous and must be coated with paraffin to prevent excessive wine loss through evaporation.

Oak, on the other hand, due to its strength, workability and lack of undesirable flavor or color extractives, is used almost exclusively in the barrel aging of fine wines. Oak has a relatively tight grain which permits a more gradual extraction of wood flavors and minimizes wine loss through evaporation. It also is resilient, enabling staves to be bent without breaking and unlike other hardwoods such as apple or cherry, has a neutral wood smell. Oak is high in tannin, which in proper amounts is an important flavor component as well as allowing red wines to age by gobbling up oxygen, which would otherwise spoil the wine.

Discover unbelievable wines made from some of the finest grapes in the world, right here in Dayton NJ. For directions, click here.

About The Grape Escape: Thomas and Nancy Nye are the proprietors at The Grape Escape, which is the first and only winemaking school in Middlesex County, NJ.

The same grapes used in the best wineries in the U.S. are now available to all winemakers. Award- winning grapes are shipped to the Dayton location, from renowned California appellations such as Napa Valley and Sonoma as well as Chile and Argentina in the Spring.

For more information, visit GoGrapes.com