Spirits and oak alternatives: what we see changing
Distillers ask us where the market is going. We make wood, not market studies. Here is what we see from the workshop, and above all what we do not see.
Do we have market figures?
No. We read the same publications you do about premiumization, about the growth from 2020 to 2022 and the correction that followed, about the projected growth in Asia-Pacific and Latin America. We have neither the raw data nor the method to check any of it, so we will not be passing it off as our own. What we can describe is the orders that come through here and the questions that land in our inboxes. That is not a representative sample of a global market: it is our customers, which is not the same thing.
What has changed in the requests that reach us
Over the past few years, three things have come up more often than before. First, non-alcoholic and low-ABV drinks, which people ask us about even though our extraction curves were established in an alcoholic medium. Then smaller operations, working without storage space and without cash tied up for years. And finally a question of repeatability: holding the same profile from one batch to the next, which matters as much to a producer of oak-aged gin as to a rum bottler.
We cannot say whether this reflects a deep trend or simply the fact that these producers find us more easily than they did ten years ago.
Does oak save time?
Partly, and not on everything. Alcohol extracts more, and faster, than water, and a distillate put in contact with chips picks up oak notes within a few weeks. That part is real and easy to observe.
What we do not know how to replace is what time does in a barrel: the slow ingress of oxygen, the evaporation, the reactions that keep going for years. We can neither copy them nor measure them properly, so we will not write that a spirit oaked in a few weeks is the equivalent of an aged spirit. They are two different products, and the second one is not always the one you are looking for.
The benchmark figures we do have
Unless stated otherwise, these values come from our technical sheets and our own measurements, and they were established in wine.
| What we are talking about | Our benchmark |
|---|---|
| Fine chips | Pieces of at least 2 mm, to stay within the frame of the oenological Codex. Below that we are talking about powder, which falls outside it. |
| Fine chips, contact time | 1 month minimum, 2 to 3 months to reach the plateau |
| Staves | 7 mm, 4 months minimum. 18 mm, 7 months minimum. |
| Barrel inserts | 22 mm sticks, the number depending on the actual condition of the barrel |
| Barrel | About 60 % of the oenological capital released in the first year |
| Liquid tannins | 20 %, so 1 L for 200 g of powder |
| Oak seasoning | 36 months in the open air before toasting, whatever the end use |
None of these durations were established on a distillate. In a more alcoholic medium, extraction is faster, by a proportion we will not put a number on for you. The equivalents in grams and in units per hectoliter are in our oak dosage simulator, with the same caveat.
The regulatory question, not one to skip
The oenological Codex governs our chips for use in wine. It says nothing about your category. Several appellations and protected categories set strict rules on the container and on the additions that are allowed, and adding oak may be prohibited. It is up to you to check what applies where you are; we pass along the documents we have on our products.
Where to start
On a small volume, with an untreated control alongside and regular tasting, rather than on a whole tank. Our Primary Colors range then helps you pin down the character you are after, profile by profile. La Recette, our pre-blended range, does not exist for spirits yet; the products concerned are grouped in the Spirits category of the shop. The dosage simulator will give you a starting figure: it suggests, it does not decide. If one of its results looks wrong on your distillate, write to us. We would rather correct a number than defend it.
Read next : Oak for spirits: what we know, and what we are still working on · Rancio is a journey