New oak barrels

A new 600L demi-muid from Franz Stockinger will cost around 3000€ – a substantial investment for a grower to make bearing in mind that 5 years later its resale value will only be 500€.

Investing in new oak barrels is a serious business.

Growers here in the Loire tend to only put a small percentage of their wines into new oak as wines from here tend to be medium bodied and too much new oak can dominate the wines.