BY MARNIE OLD

Most modern wines are made in stainless-steel tanks . But winemakers still use traditional oak barrels to refine and improve most premium red wines and some whites too — most notably chardonnay — even if they are not aiming to add the toasty flavors of new oak .

Just as a chef might reduce a sauce over heat to concentrate its flavors , or add butter to enrich its texture , vintners use both older and newer barrels to dial up the intensity of a wine ’ s flavors through evaporation , or to soften its mouthfeel , through small-scale chemical reactions driven by oxygen during barrel maturation .

For decades , wine professionals have been taught that these were effects of wood being porous , allowing slow-controlled exposure to air , unlike steel or glass . Air was thought to make its way through a barrel ’ s staves or joints to replace the missing wine , as if it went through a wooden sponge , with a softening effect on the wine ’ s mouthfeel .

But recent studies have shown that this mechanism was misunderstood . It is not the porous nature of wood , or the cracks where staves meet , that provide the most aeration , but rather the frequency with which barrels must be opened for maintenance . The vast majority of oxygen absorbed by wine during barrel maturation is introduced periodically in big gulps each time the barrel stopper or bung is removed , rather than via continuous “ breathing ” through the wood .

Marnie Old is one of the country ’ s leading wine educators . Formerly the director of wine studies for Manhattan ’ s French Culinary Institute , she is best known for her visually engaging books published by DK , such as Wine : A Tasting Course . Marnie currently serves as director of vinlightenment for Boisset Collection .

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WHEN IT COMES TO AERATION , IT ’ S ALL ABOUT THAT BUNG , NOT THE BARREL

Compared to wine stored in steel tanks , wine aged in oak barrels must be accessed by winemakers via the bung hole regularly for routine tasks , such as racking , topping and testing . Racking is when wine is transferred from one vessel to another , either directly from a fermentation tank , or from one barrel to another , in order to separate it from sediments . Barrels must be periodically topped up too , since water and alcohol are lost to evaporation during maturation , shrinking the wine ’ s liquid volume gradually over time . Barrels are also opened regularly to check their progress , whether for sampling or lab testing .

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