Just as the French authorities are at long last being asked to allow the use of oak chips in France's less expensive wines (why shouldn't French winemakers, like everyone else, be allowed this useful crutch in turning cheap sow's ears into a more commercially attractive rayon purse?), quality-conscious blenders in the New World are turning against these cheap, rather unsubtle forms of adding oak flavour in favour of planks, or inner staves.
There is now big business in supplying various sorts of wooden planks to producers in Australia and the Americas who need to add a bit of interest to...
