On Friday my wife and I had a vertical tasting of Capannelle’s Solare, '14, '16, '18, and we were really trying to understand the oak impact. Solare is a 80/20 blend of Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera. IMO the '16 had the best structure/complexity/potential, but the '14 was more drinkable now. Because it was a very bright sunny day in their garden it was beautiful to see the orange color flow in ruby/garnet pour–not in the 18, visible in the 16, very apparent in the 14.
The vinification was in large Slavonian oak conical vats.
The maturation is 18 months in barrique–I don’t have good notes on this because the cellar tour focused more on the CC Riserva process–but I think it was 20% to 25% new french oak.
'18 spec sheet: https://web.capannelle.it/en/shop/solare/
Their TN: “Intense dark ruby colour with purple rim. On the nose aromas of raspberry, cherry, tobacco and dark chocolate. Mineral palate with smooth and elegant tannins.” I agree.
We had a good discussion with our host (not the winemaker) but she couldn’t really help answer whether the tobacco smell came from the grape through the process of maturing, or if it was imparted by the wood.
The WF tasting wheel guide to tertiary notes (independent of grape variety) has tobacco in general aging and cigar box in oak aging.
@larry_schaffer in 2013 said “there is no consensus at all” on what an “oaked wine” means. (In our tasting the aromas were more easier to discern that the taste. We got the tobacco, leather, cigar box, a vanilla/butterscotch. In the '14 I noted smoke aroma.) Other posters agreed in was a confusing, complicated topic and that “oak flavors” can come from yeast, seeds, stems, and that the European and American palates might differ.
In our cellar we use barriques and tonneau of french oak, both medium toasted.
As I told you also during the tour of the cellar, during the aging we do not only use new oak. The wine ages 33% in new oak, 33% in second passage oak (2 yo), 33% in third passage oak (3-4 yo).
This is a choice of Simone Monciatti, our wine maker, to give the wine the right amount of tannin and antioxidants without distorting the floral and fruity taste of the wine.
There are lots of psychological aspects to the perception of oak.
For example, if I was out on sales trip for our wines, if people knew I was in the barrel business, they would find oakiness in the vermentino, which got its oakiness via the hose as it went through the barrel room.
On the otherhand,those who were unaware of my background often. didn’t find oak in our chardonnay, around 40% new.
Sometimes the oakiness comes from how the wine is made. If this winery racked clean wine into new barrels…voila, instant oak. I don’t have any details on this wine or winery…no contact or knowledge whatsoever
You managed to get a chuckle out of me with this one.
But yeah, I’ve seen people say in a blind tasting that they didn’t like the wine they were tasting because it was so over-oaked that they couldn’t detect anything but the wood - which sounded very weird to me, because I was tasting the same wine and didn’t find anything remotely oaky in the wine. It turned out to be a Spätburgunder vinified and aged in stainless steel tanks.
Anyways, back to OP: typically many tobacco aromas come from oak aging. However, to me, Sangiovese’s aroma profile starts to get from fruity to earthy and more tobacco-like with age - even some Chiantis aged entirely in concrete tanks might’ve had aromas of, say, loose pouch tobacco. So if the wine is a Sangiovese-driven blend aged in partly new barriques, it’s possible that the aromas come from the oak, the fruit or both. Sorry if this wasn’t helpful!
Finding the right oak approach for Sangiovese is not easy. When we made Sangiovese our best success was with 400 liter barrels. Somehow this grape seems to repel oak. Maybe this is why Chianti was often aged in larger ovals and round casks. Pinot is the opposite. Oak and Pinot integrate easily.
