The secret to savings across the board
Savings are like good vintages – everyone wants them, but they have to be earned
Not that you have to bust a gut to get any – sometimes the merest change to a well-worn routine is enough to unlock savings all over the place; in water use, labour, carbon impact, and of course, financially too.
So what can trigger these savings? Simple things can; like stainless steel tanks and our micro-oxygenation system. Together these two can achieve the same maturation goals as an oak barrel program – yet they also bring massive savings along to the party:
Barrel Purchase
21x less expensive
Angel’s Share
2% to 5% less evaporation
Storage & Handling
Massive labour savings!
Water Use
270,000L less water required
Carbon Impact
1 less container ship sailing pa
So how can MOX and stainless steel save so much? Let’s check it out:
Barrel Purchase
As you know, barrels are pricey. Up to US$2000 each at times and they’re not getting any cheaper. Plus, you can only use them once or twice. Thing is; you don’t actually need any at all! You can achieve exactly the same flavour, colour and texture in a stainless tank with oak staves. Plus, the tank will last probably twenty years or more too.
Angel's Share
No oak barrel is airtight so aging in real time allows the angels to guzzle more than their fair share of your distillate. But can you really afford to be so generous with evaporation? With an Accuro unit, aging is enhanced so years become months if not weeks – leaving the angels thirsty and probably a little grumpy too.
Storage & Handling
Barrels require a lot more handling than stainless steel tanks as they need curing, topping off, emptying and cleaning as well as stacking. All this takes time by someone who has to be paid. Then there is all the room required to store the things! But a stainless tank plus an Accuro unit minimises these needs – and cuts down the handling and storage time requirements to a fraction.
Water Use
Barrels can be reused of course, for a while, but that also means washing them out. Three times! To wash say, 166 barrels three times takes around 45,000 litres of water. But if you use stainless tanks with oak staves and an Accuro unit on 300,000 litres of wine then you’re only washing once. That’s a saving of around 270,000 litres of water.
Carbon Impact
It took an awful lot of trees to make all those barrels in your cellar. Plus, they all had to be shipped to you empty. That’s 220 litres of air being carted around the world at least once. Not so good for the planet.
So let’s crunch some numbers on that
(Barrel matured vs MOX/Stainless)
Assuming the following:
- Vs a 30% new oak barrel programme
- $1,500 per barrel
- 220L barrel volume
- Just straight COGS (not including labour)
As you can see a mix of tank maturation and Accuro technology is a far more cost-effective way to mature your wine or spirit than a typical oak barrel program. And in more than just pure financial terms too! We have a few real world examples of this some of our clients have kindly let us in on which I can share with you one-on-one. If you’re interested in learning more drop me a line today.
Cheers!
Dr Mark Eltom CEO
