Wine Expert kits - leaving the oak in after primary?

[AquaCom]

I have done a few wine expert kits now and always follows instructions to the letter. I am confused a little though on one of the stages. I was going to email wine expert as their replies are usually quite good but wanted opinions on the forum too.
Upon racking from primary to secondary it states you should "leave most of the sediment behind". Ok, fair enough. However the "sediment" also happens to contain all of the oak that was added at the beginning of primary fermentation. All of the chips have sunk by then.
This suggests that the oak is no longer required from secondary onwards. Is that really correct? Especially for some of the kits which promise heavy oak.
To be honest I ignored this instruction on the last kit (estate series Lodi ranch). Although I left a lot of the sediment behind I did manually scoup out most of the oak and tipped it into the secondary fermenter.
I had read somewhere that some people don't even add the oak until bulk ageing state.
Interested in opinions. To me it makes more sense to add the oak at the later stages when ageing.....surely? Or is it just personal preference as to how oaky you want the finished wine?

[goldseal]

Oak is in the primary for two main reasons: one is to impart an oak profile, and the other something to do with the chemistry - not sure how relevant the latter is to kit fermentations, but it is generally a good idea to add a small about of oak to the primary when fermenting from grapes.

In my opinion most kits are less oaky than I'd like. I wouldn't try to re-use the oak powder or chips which have sunk to the bottom of the primary. I would obtain a bag or two of chips and add those to your carboy after fermentation is complete.

[rjb222]

Depending on the style of oak used powder is used more as a finning agent than a flavoring agent in kit making. Cubes sticks and chips are flavoring additives and the surface area will have been calculated to give up what the kit company is looking for during the first stage of ferment. I have customers that want more oak than what the kits have in them I stock spirals cubes ETC. for these individuals. Most of these customers also bulk age their wine for long periods. They leave the chosen oak in the secondary until there is just a little too much oak for their liking and then age the wine until it reaches a good balance for them. This is done very carefully tasting regularly as once added oak can not be removed.