By Samuel Squire

In light of the scramble for Australia’s winemakers to get hold of new French oak barrels in time for the next vintage, Flexcube is offering producers an innovative product that is designed to produce fine wine, time and time again with low costs.

Traditional oak barrels are getting more expensive, have a limited lifespan, and a large environmental footprint in terms of oak and water, according to Flexcube managing director Bill Willis.

“Direct Barrels Pty Ltd, trading as Flexcube, produces a maturation vessel which was invented and manufactured in Victoria, Australia for over ten years and is the answer to the high cost of oak barrels and unreliable supply chains,” he said.

“Cost and quality motivated us to create a new type of vessel with all the advantages of traditional barrels but none of the common problems. It put the wine maker in control of the wine making process and removes the depreciation variables found in wine from barrel to barrel.”

Willis says Flexcube mimics the process in an oak barrel with far fewer uncontrolled variables.

Read the full story on oak alternatives in the upcoming September issue of the Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower & Winemaker.

Are you a Daily Wine News subscriber? If not, click here to join our mailing list. It’s free!