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It's a segment of the wine industry that will continue to boom as long as the dollar remains fragile and large quantities of spice-and vanilla-laced wine are produced. Concurrently, the oak alternatives business will continue to be kinetic as high-end winemakers accept its products' perceived virtues and learn how to utilize them to their maximum benefit.
The largest segment of the oak alternatives (or adjuncts) business, stave inserts--whether oven toasted or, increasingly, hand-fired--has flourished, especially in the last couple of years. Oak flavoring products (above) in a flurry of dizzying forms--toasted and non-toasted oak chips, spirals, string beans, dominoes, marbles, zigzags, cubes, balls, granulates, sticks, chains, bags or powder--have seen only modest gains in the higher-priced segment of...
