1.   About a quarter of the wine was aged in new American oak.

2.   French Syrah, especially from the Northern Rhone, is aged exclusively in French oak, while most Australian Shiraz is aged in American oak.

3.   Hamilton imported many ornamental trees and shrubs from America, including American oaks and swamp cypresses, and was among the first to grow rhododendrons in England.

4.   Hurta says she and her husband discovered American oak years ago while looking for a dresser for their youngest daughter.

5.   In the past, too many of these wines were burdened by the cloying effects of too much American oak.

6.   In the waning years of the Victorian era, with its draped and cluttered parlors, consumers were looking for change and found it in American oak.

7.   Lots of American oak, but an extraordinary wine, bursting with vanilla and rich, dark fruit, herbs and lingering black currants.

8.   Though it sometimes has slipped out of style as the public lusted after primitives or painted pieces, American oak has always had its fans, Marian Hurta says.