The South Beach Wine Club
We Know How To Party!
We aren’t just another wine club - we provide our club members with everyday wines along with a daily blog full of great wine information. Our articles are full of wine news, pairing suggestions, restaurant reviews, and party tips designed to help wine buyers ranging from complete novices to experienced drinkers looking for the next best bottle. Sure, we want you to purchase a membership to The South Beach Wine Club, but we also want you to stop by every day to see what's on our minds. And once you're here, we hope you comment on what you read.
The club is designed for those who like to enjoy wine every day and those who know that wine helps make a party great - no matter what size! But who has time to make that extra trip after work to the wine store, trolling through endless bottles of wine? You should spend your time enjoying the wine, so we pick great bottles at great prices for you. No more guess work!
We keep it simple - 3 different tiers: 2, 4 or 6 bottles per month.
The price is listed in the total price - no hidden shipping costs at check out.
Customize your shipment to be all reds, all whites, or a mix - because you never know.
Perfect gift for those busy friends who always like to have a bottle of wine around.
Regularly updated blog to provide you with helpful party tips, wine suggestions, and pairing ideas.
South Beach Wine Club Daily Blog:
03
Jul
Author: Randy // Category:
Wine Stories
New oak barrels impart more intense flavor to a wine than old oak barrels; older barrels impart more spice whereas new barrels add buttery tones. This is why winemakers have to think very carefully how both are used for maturing their wine. Here are a few considerations that go into their decision.
Sometimes, winemakers elect to use 100 percent new barrels for each year’s wine. In such cases, they’ve made not only a very important financial calculation – each barrel can cost up to $1,000 – but also a determination that the wine will truly benefit from the massive flavor impact of using all new oak. Not all wines do. In fact, lots of very good wines might be overpowered by the influence of all that oak, losing fruitiness and charm.

Fortunately, new barrels don’t become old barrels overnight. Their ability to impart flavor declines steadily with each year of use, usually taking 4 to 6 years before no longer contributing much, if any, flavor. As a result, winemakers have the option of using a mix of both powerful new, and muted older barrels in order to control the degree of oak influence on the finished wine.
A popular way of doing this is to replace a set percentage of older barrels with brand new ones each year. With this system, a winery might put, say, 1/3 of a wine into new barrels while putting another 1/3 into 1-year-old barrels and a final 1/3 into 2-year-old barrels. When all this wine is put back together after aging, it winds up with a reduced degree of oak flavor – much less than 100 percent new oak would provide – and tailored to what the winemaker intended.
The difference between French and American oak, and the aromas and flavors they pass onto the wine is a whole other article!