Will soaring oak prices prevent winegrowers from maturing their wines in new oak?

rench coopers have sold 684,912 barrels, a number on a par with their normal activity following several challenging years caused by short crops, wildfires in California and Australia and the impact of the bottleneck in global shipping supply chains due to the pandemic, to name a few. Despite the positive results, however, coopers remain concerned about the future due to difficulties in accessing raw materials. After being excluded from negotiations leading to an extension of the ‘Oak’ agreement, the stave mill organisation and French cooperage federation warned the Agriculture Minister. “Marc Fesneau asked his departments to take up the issue. Vincent Lefort, chairman of the French stave mill organisation and Jean-Luc Sylvain, chairman of the French cooperage federation were received by his advisor for Natural Resources, Biodiversity and Lumber Wood and his deputy director for the Lumber Wood, Horse and Bio-Economy industries at the Ministry of Agriculture”, states a press release.

Industry representatives stressed the difficulties involved in gaining fair access to ‘stave quality’ stave wood since the change in marketing practices at the National Forestry Commission (ONF). “Supply contracts are now reserved for sawmilling, depriving the profession of some of its raw materials. This situation puts pressure on prices which coopers have so far not passed on to the price of their barrels in order not to penalise their customers, some of whom are themselves experiencing challenging times. But in two or three years’ time, there is a risk that the price of oak will no longer allow some of them to mature their wines in new oak”, they explain.