What did oak barrels do to wine?

The use of oak barrels by humans can be traced back to the 5th century BC, when the ancient Celts creatively made oak into wooden barrels to store water and ale and other liquids. In the dark Middle Ages, after the craftsmanship of oak barrels spread to Western Europe, it naturally became the first choice for Europeans to store wine.

Sealed oak barrels are ideal for the transportation of wine. They are not only large in capacity, easy to move, strong in structure, but also reusable. 

For thousands of years, the identity of oak barrels was merely a container for storing and transporting wine; but in the last 100 years, people began to care about the impact of oak barrels on the taste and maturation of wine. For a while, "oak barrel aging" has become a very important part of the entire winemaking process, and not only the winemaker, even ordinary consumers will be very concerned about the role of oak barrels.

"Before the 20th century, oak flavour had always been thought to destroy the taste of wine; people began to appreciate oak flavour is actually a relatively modern phenomenon."

 

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