Bourbon wouldn’t be bourbon without new, charred American oak barrels — that’s actually written into U.S. law, and that’s where bourbon gets its signature flavor and deep amber color. Oak barrels are ...

Rioja’s identity has long been tied to American oak. Now French oak, concrete, and amphorae are reshaping the region.

Oak barrels have been associated with transporting and aging wine for thousands of years, but for all their ubiquity, not all oak is the same. In fact, the choice of barrel, depending on how long a ...

Winemakers: To oak or not to oak, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up oak to craft your wine to shake the spheres ...

Say the word "winery" and many people may envision a cool, dimly lit space filled with wooden barrels - each holding 800 gallons or so - giving the liquid inside time to mellow, develop complexity and ...

Talk about oak in wine, and one might picture rows of barrels, each cask snuggled into the two below. Go on a winery tour, and you'll march past walls of barrel tops decorated with coopers' stylized ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Brian Freedman covers wine, spirits, food, and travel. This article is more than 8 years old. In May of 2015, Silver Oak, the ...

First, a correction. It seems that most wine judges and critics now have apps that scan the world for the use of their name and recently one in London pointed out that I had erred in referring to him ...

There’s something about a barrel room in a winery. On the surface, it’s just a giant room filled with a bunch of identical wooden barrels stacked in rows. That alone can be an impressive sight, but ...