Oak conversion table: chips, staves and finishing tannins
How much chips, how many staves, what equivalent in finishing tannin to reach the same level of oak. The table below gives the equivalences our winemakers work with, in grams or units per hectoliter, for white wines and for red wines.
| White wines | Red wines | Chips G (g/hL) | Staves 7 mm (u/hL) | Staves 18 mm (u/hL) | Finishing tannins (g/hL) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slightly oaky | 100 g/hL | 0,5 | 0,2 | 1,3 | |
| Oaky | Slightly oaky | 150 g/hL | 0,8 | 0,3 | 2,0 |
| 200 g/hL | 1,0 | 0,4 | 2,7 | ||
| Oaky | 250 g/hL | 1,3 | 0,5 | 3,3 | |
| Intense oak | 300 g/hL | 1,5 | 0,6 | 4,0 | |
| Equivalent to a new barrel | Intense oak | 350 g/hL | 1,8 | 0,7 | 4,7 |
| 400 g/hL | 2,0 | 0,8 | 5,3 | ||
| 450 g/hL | 2,3 | 0,9 | 6,0 | ||
| Equivalent to a new barrel | 500 g/hL | 2,5 | 1,0 | 6,7 | |
| 550 g/hL | 2,8 | 1,1 | 7,3 | ||
| 600 g/hL | 3,0 | 1,2 | 8,0 |
How long to leave the oak in contact
- G chips: 5 days to 1 month during fermentation, 1 to 2 months during maturation.
- Staves 7 mm: around 4 months.
- Staves 18 mm: around 7 months.
If contact time has to be shortened, the dose must go up. The reverse holds too: a long contact at a low dose gives a more integrated oak than a short contact at a high dose.
How to read the table
The white wine and red wine columns are not read on the same line. At an equal dose, a white tastes oakier than a red: 300 g/hL give intense oak on a white, and only moderate oak on a red. The equivalent of a new barrel is reached around 350 g/hL on whites and 500 g/hL on reds.
Before dosing in the cellar
These figures are a starting point, not a prescription. Vintage, wine structure and target profile all move the cursor. Set your own dose on your own numbers with our free decision-support tool, then confirm with a bench trial before treating the tank.