French Oak Trees eat Mushrooms - not.  Add/Read Comments

How can a 'reputable company' spew out such rubbish? Astounding they are still trading, regardless of the apparently astronomical mark-ups. I cant see a company like this lasting five minutes in the UK, but this is Dallas, Texas, where they obviously do things differently. It is a long article but worth reading. (Thanks to Alder at Vinography).

Dallas Observer
"Wine fermented and aged in French oak barrels tastes like mushrooms, Winkler says. Wine matured in American oak tastes like a campfire. The reason? In America, winery workers jump inside the barrels and scorch the sides to a thick char before they're filled with juice. In France, it all boils down to what the trees eat.

"The tree that produces this barrel grows up against every black and white truffle in the world," he explains. "When you cut this tree down, the tree has been feeding off these mushrooms for centuries. And when you cut the tree down, all of the oil that's in these truffles is inherently in this oak."