When Skolnik started selling stainless steel barrels to the wine industry two decades ago, the wine industry did not market or boast about “un-oaked” wines. Today however, we have seen a huge shift in the market to the point where “naked” wines are all the rage. Does this mean that the wine makers are undressed when they stomp on the grapes? No, naked is a tongue-in-cheek term vintners use to describe the taste of pure grapes, with no oak in their flavor. One might also see similar wines called “un-wooded” or “un-oaked”. Many styles of wines aren’t given the oak-barrel treatment — mostly whites like Riesling, pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc. These wines taste better younger and fresher, and don’t need the toasty flavor or texture enrichment that aging in oak barrels provide. But others, like chardonnay and almost all red wines, benefit so much from barrels that we’ve come to think of their oaky versions as normal. When a winemaker decides to skip the oak to make a lighter, brighter version, they need to let the consumer know — hence the new wave of “naked” wines. So does “naked” mean lighter? Yes, but a better word might be “fresher”. Fermenting wine in stainless steel protects it from air and preserves the vibrant flavor and tang of fresh grapes. Oak barrels allow the wine to “breathe” in a way that speeds up the aging process, changing the wine’s flavor and boosting its tactile richness. If the barrels are also “new”, the distinctive toasty scent of the oak is infused into the wine, giving it a flavor similar to dessert spices, vanilla or browned butter. So why skip the oak? There a couple of reasons. First, oak treatment adds to a wines cost in many ways, because you need to factor in the cost of the barrels and the extra time needed for aging. Second, there are many people who avoid oaky wines because they prefer younger and fresher tasting wines. Skolnik’s stainless steel wine barrels have played a key role in the ever increasing market for “naked” wines.
Wine