To me, the descriptor ‘tastes and/or smells oaky’ is one of the most often used, but most misunderstood or misapplied out there. I have poured folks wines that were all stainless steel fermented and aged, but some have commented on the ‘oaky overtones’ or the ‘richness that obviously is due to oak’. I’ve tasted unoaked wines with others who were convinced the wine had been aged using 100% new heavy toast oak barrels. And I have been around others tasting wines that were in new oak for 2 years and, to me, were quite ‘oaky’ only to hear others say that they did not notice the oak at all - that it has ‘integrated nicely’ and was ‘not apparent’.
How can such divergent thoughts and opinions be given on the exact same wine? Well, let’s just cut to the chase - it’s wine, darn it, and nearly everything about wine is ‘subjective’. One winemakers ‘sweet spot’ for VA is anothers ‘over the top and sickingly too high’. One consumers ‘earthiness’ is anothers ‘corked’ descriptor.
Yep, we are dealing here on this board with generally ‘more wine educated’ folks, but that does not rule out the subjectivity that is overbearingly there all of the time.
This thread has been interested because a number of folks have described, from THEIR perspective, what an ‘oaked’ wine is, but there really is no consensus whatsoever.
Cheers . . .