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56 WINES&VINES October 2015 BARRELS He said that Radoux plans to make some upgrades at the California cooperage to boost production, and part of a new marketing strat- egy is to stress the company has a production facility in the North Coast. "A lot of people still don't know that Radoux is local," he said of the cooperage, which has been in operation for 20 years and produces about 10,000 bar- rels per year. "It's very, very important and a big advantage. Being local, you can produce almost on demand." While acknowledging that he's still getting to know some of the trends that dictate barrel fashion, Zandvliet did say the intense demand for American oak stave wood for Bourbon barrels is still driving up prices and may cause some winemakers to rethink their barrel programs. French and American oak supply This summer, the Fédération des Tonneliers de France released the findings of two studies it commissioned from the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information and the National Forests Office on the future of France's oak supply for barrels. The IGN studied 25 French states that have traditionally been the source of oak for barrels. The study found that the standing timber located mostly in the re- gions of Haute Saône, Nièvre, Marne and Allier comes to 15 milion cubic meters. While the volume is substantial, the amount of haute futaie timber (the trees originally planted for naval ships) is declining, while tallis sous futaie (or coppice forest) with less tree density is increasing. The ONF surveyed 47 forests covering 160,000 hectares (or nearly 400,000 acres) situated in the Loire region and interior of France. Most of the trees in these forests are of the sessile species. While the current amount of standing timber should provide a stable level of supply, the ONF also noted the amount of haute futaie trees are declining, and tallis sous futaie is on the increase. The ONF also expects this trend to continue for the next 10 to 15 years. This trend could "aggravate the pressure on prices that has been quite noticeable over the last two years," according to the coopers' federation. American oak is unlikely to get cheaper any time soon due to the demand for whisky barrels and because the supply of stave wood is un- likely to increase much despite that demand. Judd Johnson, editor of the trade publica- tion Hardwood Market Report, said the Ameri- can white oak logs used for stave wood are the "most premium quality" logs on the market, followed by those used for veneer and thick lumber. In a typical stand of American hard- wood forest, there's going to be a wide range of tree quality and tree species. About 80% of all hardwood forests in the United States are held by private owners—and to make it worth- while for them to harvest a stand, they need a market for all those trees. "You have to have multiple markets working at a healthy level," Johnson said. The demand for white oak for cooperage is strong, but barrels account for too small a mar- ket share to be a real driver in the U.S. hard- wood industry. Johnson described the American oak supply situation as "static," explaining that the quan- tity of harvested timber is about equal to the amount growing. The demand for staves, while strong, has not yet reached a point where it exceeds the number of barrel quality logs being harvested. "That's a legitimate concern for the stave industry in particular, that it may be going the other way around," he said. "I do think there's been an increase in stave demand for the logs, but I don't think it's been enough to materially change the harvester-to-growth ratio. Obviously if it continues to grow, that rate could go the other way." Due to the cost of harvesting equipment and the species mix in a typical American hard- wood forest, Johnson said it would make little sense for a barrel supplier to buy tracks of For more information contact your sales representative or email us at info@seguinmoreau.com