Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/450857
February 2015 Wines&Vines 33 barrels Nadalie recently was in France for the start of the oak auctions and said prices are starting higher and being driven up for bidding. The Nadalie Prestige tight-grain barrel is priced around $1,100, and prices could increase 3%-4%, but Nadalie was not sure exactly how much when he spoke to Wines & Vines in early December. Mercier, with Premier Wine Cask, reported that the average price for wood at a recent auction was 14% higher than last year. He said that would push the price of his French oak barrels up nearly 3%. He added that with a weaker euro, and the dollar continuing to strengthen, the price of a Dargaud & Jaegle (French oak) barrel is less than $1,000. Chris Hansen, general man- ager at Seguin Moreau Napa Coo- perage, said French barrels will see a small price increase in step with the rising cost of wood, and American oak barrel price in- creases will be much larger (al- though that increase has yet to be determined). "Wood prices con- tinued to escalate during the past year due to continuing low Ameri- can oak log supply," he said. Hansen said he isn't sure when the United States took the top spot in terms of barrel sales, but it's not surprising given how many new barrels American wineries buy and how many new wineries open every year. "The change we have seen is more cooperages are enter- ing the sales market in the USA each year that never sold here before," he said. "Most winemak- ers tell us they hear from new coopers every year now." Trends in the cellar The coopers all agreed that wine- makers continue to seek "re- strained" and "balanced" barrels for their oak programs. Mercer with Leroi said the coo- perage's medium-long toast con- tinues to be popular for Bordeaux variety wines because it can lift the fruit flavors from a vineyard that generally produces riper grapes. "It's all about having the fruit forwardness and not having the barrel show," he said. Leroi, one of a few coopers to have licensed the barrel-fermen- tation system first introduced by Tonnellerie Baron and Mercer, said it's been quite popular. R a d o u x ' s M c C a r t h y s a i d "flashy" oak is out and winemak- ers instead want and three-year oak and tight-grain American and French barrels that provide struc- tural support for wine and less of the bold flavors easily perceived in the finished wine. "Any barrel that is designed to put fruit and terroir up front and soft oak aromatics in the back should be doing well in this mar- ket," said Stout of Cooperages 1912. Tight-grain continues to be popular, said Nadalie. "What they're always looking for is more structure and length from the barrels." Herwatt, with Tonnellerie O, said more of his firm's clients are combining barrels and oak alter- natives rather than opting for one or the other. The cooperage is part of Cork Supply Group that also includes the alternatives supplier Creative Oak. He said he has seen winemak- ers add oak alternatives to a new barrel to extract maximum oak f l a v o r t h a t i s t h e n s p r e a d throughout a finished blend. In- stead of buying 10 new barrels, a winemaker could rather buy five and add alternative prod- ucts. "More and more wineries are using a combination of bar- rels and oak alternatives to re- ally flavor wine." "Wood prices continued to escalate during the past year due to continuing low American oak log supply." —Chris Hansen, Seguin Moreau Napa Cooperage