To understand the complex flavours of wine, you must understand the flavour of oak in wine and the reason oaking exists.

The first thing to know about wine is that oak barrels do not grow in vineyards and that the flavour is not part of the natural flavour of wine.

The flavour of oak is introduced by contact with barrels used for storage and/or transport made from that wood. Sometimes, actually, quite often, the oak flavours overpower the other wine flavours, in which case it is considered to be “overoaked”. Barrels made of new oak contribute a very strong flavour to wine. In fact, up until the 1980s no French wine grower worth his salt would ever, ever have put good wine into barrels made of new oak!

In red wines, the oak flavour components include "vanillin" or vanilla, and so-called "toasty", "charred", "roasted" or “caramelised” elements. In white wines, the flavour component is generally “buttery”. Vanillin and buttery come from the character of the hardwood. The others derive from the "charring" of the barrel that occurs from the flaming of the interior of the barrel to be able to bend the staves into place.

The second thing to know is that the reason oak barrels came into existence was mainly for the transport of wines and, therefore, the storage of wines.

Let me now take you back in time to the Roman period when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul (as France was then known) in AD 52.

As the Roman army invaded deeper into Gaul and spread northwards towards the Benelux countries and onwards to England and Scotland (where they stopped) two things became apparent:

1. That they needed large amounts of wine for the Roman army, and
2. That there were not enough vineyards in Gaul. (There were only a few small vine regions planted by the Greeks around the Mediterranean basin.)

This was a bit of a worry as wine was particularly revered by the Romans for its digestive and medicinal qualities, its ability to disinfect food, as well as being very pleasant to drink! In his writings, Pliny the Elder eulogized about wine and extolled its virtues. Unfortunately for us, the names of the varietals he mentioned are not known today.

So, the Romans set about importing wine from the best vineyards in the world - the fertile slopes surrounding Pompeii, and the Etruscan vineyards.

Initially, transport was by boat. They loaded wine-filled amphorae onto boats and then onto donkeys on arrival. As they travelled into the hinterlands of Gaul, much of the wine was lost. This was mainly due to the amphorae falling off the donkeys and breaking; also due to the native Gaulois (pronounced gol-wah) who loved wine so much, they couldn’t get enough of it. They would hijack the caravans whenever they could.

By the end of the 2^nd century the boats were constructed in such a manner that they were like floating tanks. The inner tanks which held the wine were made of clay and sealed with molten lead. The wine was then transferred for storage into large wooden containers of up to as much as 1200 litres, or into animal skins or bladders for further transport.

The Romans noticed that the Gaulois used barrels made of yew wood for the transport of their ales. They started to use this for wines, but it was not a success. In AD 70 Pliny denounced the “deadly effects of these strange recipients of yew wood made in Gaul”.

It is thought to be soon afterwards that the first oak barrels carried wine.

The eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 wiped out all the vineyards surrounding Pompeii. It was from this date that the Legions planted vineyards in France in earnest, starting with the Rhone Valley, Aquitaine, the South-West, and Bordeaux regions, moving north towards the Loire Valley. There is evidence that the vineyards of Sancerre and some parts of Muscadet date from the Roman occupation. A stone grape-press dating back to the 2^nd century was found just south of Tours indicating that the Touraine vineyards may well date back to that period.

When Eleanor of Aquitaine became Queen of England in 1153, she set up the commerce and transport of her favourite wines from the South West of France though the port of Bordeaux.

The containers used for this transport were, of course, oak barrels.

In the Middle Ages, the Dukes of Burgundy set up a transportation network of their wines to the Benelux countries, again, in oak barrels.

In the regions up and down the Loire Valley, the wine grower only had to transport his wines 4 or 5 kilometres up the road to the local château or castle. He would put his wines in oak barrels or vats, and, on arrival at the château, tip them into storage tanks in the château's cellars. He would always bring the oak barrels back home again.  In the Touraine region, excavations beneath the Château of Chaumont have found wine tanks hewn into the Tufa rock face and lined with glass tiles dating back to the Middle Ages.

Today, it is still traditional to age the wines in glass. We age our wines in the bottle!