We made our selection of Xoakers for our Oak Adjunct (oak flavoring for our Flextank) last week.  We visited their location in Windsor and purchased 2 pounds of the little oaks balls.  They recommend 1-2 balls per gallon of wine for 4-9 months…so since we don’t want a lot of oak flavor, we are adding 1 per gallon.  The tricky part…how to get them out when we have the correct flavor.  Joanne is a wonderful seamstress so she sewed small bags in food grade cloth provided by the vendor.  When we have the flavor we are looking for we can fish them out and let it flavors continue to age until we are ready to bottle late this year or early next year.

Next year, these little balls will be put in the wine right after primary fermentation as this should enhance the flavor even more.