Your Wine Barrel Costs: Oak vs Stainless Steel

Barrel Costs

An oak barrel can range significantly in price, depending on if it is made from American or French oak. An oak barrel will only continue to give your wine that oak flavor for, at most, 8 fills and requires more time and money to maintain and/or replace.

A stainless steel wine barrel will cost around the same. The key difference is that stainless steel barrels can last much longer. A barrel that is well cared for can easily last more than 30 years.

Wine Loss

An oak wine barrel isn't completely airtight. As a result, one oak barrel can lose up to six gallons a year from evaporation! That is the equivalent of 30 bottles of wine. Multiply those 30 bottles by how many barrels you have in service, which starts to add up to a significant number.

A stainless steel barrel is airtight. The end result is you do not lose any wine to evaporation.

Man Hours Required

An oak barrel requires a lot more maintenance than its stainless steel counterpart.

Oak wine barrels require:

Curing
Topping off
Sulfur treatments
Emptying
Cleaning

Those activities add up to, on average, five minutes per barrel. That equates to roughly $1.66 per barrel, assuming your worker is paid $20 per hour.

A stainless steel barrel requires much less attention.

Stainless steel wine barrels require:

Emptying
Cleaning
Sanitizing

Those activities take, on average, one minute total per barrel. That equates to roughly $0.33 per barrel, assuming your worker is paid $20 per hour.

Total Cost Of Ownership

Once you consider the cost of a barrel over its lifetime, you can really see the value of a Mueller stainless steel wine barrel. A quality stainless steel wine barrel can cost less upfront, last far longer, lose less wine, and take less time to clean than a traditional oak barrel.

You can move to Paul Mueller Company stainless steel wine barrels and start creating wonderful wines in a barrel that will last!