The relationship between oxygen and any truly outstanding wine is a well-choregraphed dance.

On one hand, wine needs oxygen to reach its full potential. On the other hand, too much oxygen and wine can quickly deteriorate.

So what is Oxygen Transfer Rate (OTR) and is it manageable?

Simplistically, OTR is the rate at which oxygen diffuses through the vessel into the beverage. This has become an intriguing topic for several PhD’s and universities. The latest studies at UVaMOX in Spain by Maria del Alamo Sanza and Ignacio Nevares PhD has summed barrel OTR up as:

• American oak: 11.3 mg/liter per year
• French oak: 8.18 mg/liter per year

Note that many variables beyond barrel physics must still be considered. Variation in trees and forests, cooperages, topping, new dry-oak vs soaked-oak, location in the cellar, humidity and even toasting all contribute to the wide and changing OTR in barrels.

Using Flextanks and high quality oak additives, winemakers can achieve an almost indistinguishable élevage provided by traditional barrel aging at a much lower cost.

Flextanks are superior to stainless steel and concrete tanks in that they naturally integrate oxygen into the wine at the same rate as the average new barrel, 9mg/l per year. OTR in Flextanks is consistent in both short and long term year after year. Getting the right amount of oxygen along with the tannins, lactones, vanillin, and furanic compounds from carefully produced tank staves is the key to creating wines of high quality aging potential without the skyrocketing cost of barrels.