Oak and clarification
Foll alcoholic fermentation in barrel, on the other hand, has become de riqueur for any full bodied white wine with aspiration to a high price. Indeed by the end of the 20th century oak had become The Other Ingredient in wine, such a high proportion of good to great wine both red and whote being matured if not fermented in small oak barrels. Indeed practically all serious red wine undergoes the smoothing procedd of maturation in oak, and all but the most aromatic, lean, and lively white are both fermented and matured in samall (2251) oak barrels.
Oak has been used for storing wine for centuries because it is both watertight and easy to work. Its more recently appreciated attributes, however, are that oak flavours have a natural affinity for those of wine, adding more complex compounds, and, perhaps more importantly, its physical properties are unparalleled for gently charifying and stabilizing wine while deepening the colour of a red and softening the texture of any well-made wine.
Fermenting a white wine in barrel, provided it has not been stripped of all of its solids an left defenceless against the assault of all the tannins and pigment in the oak, makes the wine much smoother in texture yet deeper in flavor. Another fashionable white winemaking ploy to add more flavour, whether the wine was fermented in barrel or tank, is regularly to stir the lees of the fermentation so as to impart some of their often rather milky flavor to the wine.