R&D
Since the 1980s, Seguin Moreau has refined its oenological knowledge and scientific tools with full-time researchers and university partnerships, enabling production of oak barrels that are increasingly improving and ideally suited for aging and meeting winemakers’ exacting expectations.
It is not enough to know that taste, aromas and flavors are affected by the oak—we want to know which compounds and when, and how they interact with other compounds—and what that means for a wine’s longevity, maturation and structure. The end goal is to gently accentuate and refine the wine’s inherent characteristics, consistently over time.
R&D Team
Our R&D team is composed of three PhDs in Enology, who continue to study oak, with a particular focus on the structure of oak grain, its chemical makeup and the way its molecules interact with those of wine.
R&D Laboratory
Our in-house laboratory runs daily analyses. Oak compounds extracted from the best raw material are tested and re-tested for chemical composition makeup and subsequent sensorial and aromatic contribution to wine.
Current research
Discovered at the Bordeaux Institute of Vine and Wine, quercus triterpenoids play an important role in the sensory profile of wines aged in barrels, as they are responsible for the sensation of “sugariness” and sweetness in dry wines. Dr. Andrei Prida and researchers have been studying this family of oak compounds (QTT) over the past years, and resulting from extensive research is the QTT Barrel. This barrel enhances the structure of wines while preserving their expression of fruit and their vineyard identity.
Other subjects of interest are the olfactory and gustatory aspects of sweet/vanilla perception, as one important contributor of this sensation is vanillin arising from lignin thermodegradation occurring during toasting of barrels and through oxidation during aging.
