Giving Up Oak Barrels
Are oak barrel alternatives the future standard for wine? “Oak barrels are obsolete,” say some vintners. Already, many inexpensive wines use oak alternatives, such as hanging bags of oak cubes or strips of oak inside stainless steel tanks, and the practice appears to be spreading to even more expensive vintages that sell at $100/bottle.
The economics are quite clear on this one, as US oak barrels cost $250 and French oak barrels cost $650. Oak alternatives cost only $1.10. That striking price difference also doesn’t even seem to account for additional warehouse space, labor costs, etc. With that disparity, it becomes obvious that many are turning to solutions from companies such as Innerstave.
Personally, I probably couldn’t tell the difference between wine fermented in steel tanks with oak alternatives versus wine fermented in oak barrels. However, what I’d be interested in knowing is whether there are any whiskeys or cask beers that are made using oak alternative techniques and whether or not there’d be any appreciable difference in quality.
