The Kelli White article talks about how seasoning of the wood, toasting of the barrel and the making of the wine all impact perceived oak flavor. That is why it is so difficult to generalize about oak and wine.
I had the same question.
On a world historical note … German riesling was the most expensive wine in the world then. Maybe the Baltic oak sellers were trading with the Germans for wine and it was a case of reciprocal inflation. The Baltic states were half Prussian in those days, after all.
Agree with all
French oak comes in different grains from different forests leading to different vanillin results
Australian wineries started curing their American oak much much better recently (starting 20 yrs ago?) I was told, eliminating the worst aspects
In the last two years the Ridge estate chards handed out at the assemblage tasting have been much less oaky than in undrinkable prior years. But I was told the percent of oak did not go down
They pour the new release estate cab at some events, and the 2013 on release at one event was undrinkably oaky. At an event one month later it showed all fruit (and awesome). So I don’t ever judge the oak level of young Ridge reds. I don’t drink them young. I do not trust the chards not to be too oaky for my palate at any age.
Their estate chards (through 17) have the same amt of oak, but the oak on the Monte Bello Chard has dropped quite a bit.
It was the 2013 Ridge vintage, and my perception of “oak creep” that caused me to start this thread and quote data from the Ridge website on new oak usage.
Here is my question: if Baltic oak was so prized in 1910 or so, why don’t more people seek it out??
Pure speculation here but my guess is that it’s a combination of fashion and predictability.
The Baltics are north of France and the forests in Hungary, Poland, Russia and elsewhere are colder than French forests, so consequently the oak would grow more slowly.
Then guys like Napoleon caused some trade disruption, then world recessions and a few world wars and then fifty years of mismanagement and bad business practices and forest mismanagement under communism pretty much ruined the business. But opportunities are there and who knows, eventually they may become preferred again. A few years ago I would always get this weird flavor when tasting wines from central Europe and finally I figured that it must be a result of the oak. But that’s not the case any more.
I don’t see any of your Oaky Lactones youtube videos…whats up with that? (+ sorry for stealing your lactone answer thunder! 
)
Eric,
My singing was banned by a joint force of Amnesty International (they said it was beyond torture) and the You Tube people, who said my singing could ruin their business.
Before World War II a tremendous amount of oak from the Baltics was turned into barrels for salted fish and beer. I read that in one year they made over one million barrels for salted herring.
I once saw a movie in which a guy slips in and out of a concentration camp through a cooperage’s workshop. Oddly this took place in Lvov/Lviv…now in the Ukraine. Taransaud bought oak from a stave mill near there. The owner said she had lived in many different countries…without ever moving. In any event, the wood was quite tannic, nothing they did seemed to help, so the experiment was ended.
How wood and where wood is dried is quite important. Our company represented a cooperage in Hungary, a joint venture between a workers’ coop and Taransaud/Chene. When Taransaud got involved, they were drying the wood in Budapest. They built a stave mill near the Tokaj area and put hedges around the wood in a such a way the wind, rain, snow etcall whistled though the stacks of wood. This changed the flavor of the barrels from a ‘Christmas punch’ of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger to a more classic barrel character.
Decided to pop a 2010 Ridge Geyserville last night, drinking the remainder tonight. This vintage of Ridge only had 5% new American oak, and yet, the oak presence remains quite pungent, perfumey. While I get that this is the Draper perfume, his signature, I can only imagine that this otherwise very good wine would be much better without that detractor. I will concede that I have also become less and less tolerant to American oak. Some more recent Ridge Geezer vintages hit 30% new oak.
From the website:
Barrels: 100% air-dried american oak barrels (10% new, 12% one and two years old, 78% three to four years old.)
Aging: Thirteen months
I do like the 14.3%.