Review Article
T.M. Panahov
Abstract
Quality of cognac alcohols aged in barrels or in a large tanks from oak clapboards, differ and depend largely on the age of the clapboards, its natural drying-maturation and botanical species of used oaks , from time and amount of (cycles) use of oak woods (barrels or staves) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. By the first pouring of cognac to new barrels (by the first cycle) is an intensive extraction of oak components that give to alcohols few rough tannic flavors. To ensure the balances (harmony) of organoleptic characteristics of cognacs they will blend with other alcohols or will send for further aging to the other, already used oak barrels. After the second, third and from each subsequent pouring cycles of alcohol to extraction, the concentration of the components in the oak barrel extractable in cognac alcohol (distillate) is gradually reduced to a minimum level, which indicates of the depletion of oak woods. From that period and thereafter the barrel is no longer due as a source of oak components of aging of wines and cognacs, and it used as a container for storing of distillated wines without noticeable quality improvement. A similar process of oak wood exhaustion occurs in oak clapboards during using in the aging cognacs in large tanks.