At first the thought of wood and wine may sound off-putting, yet many of the things we adore about wine is due to time spent aging in wooden barrels. Study grapes and appellations all you want, but until you know a wee bit about the wood that goes along with your wine, there's sure to be lingering aromas and flavors that you just won't be able to explain.

Qualities wrought by oak can be overwhelming-we've all had certain California Chards that scream butter and vanilla upon first sniff. But when done well, oak will impart fuller body and yummy layers of vanilla, butter, and toasted nuts without masking the fruit.

Some of the most popular types of oak are American, French, and Hungarian. Each oak lends its own attribute to the juice. For example American oak is known for the vanilla it imparts, and Hungarian oak can lend a note of spice to the finish of a wine. French oak is similar to American in the flavors and aromas it lends, but with much less intensity.

You may hear that a wine is aged in new oak. That means the wine will have stronger oak characteristics, while a wine aged in used oak will have more subtleties of the wood. In addition to the aromas, oak gives wine body and color. Place an oak-aged Chardonnay next to a Chard that never touched the stuff, and the oaked wine will inevitably appear darker in color. No oak on the wine pours up leaner, lighter bodied wines, like those sprightly Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand.