So I have made several batches of wine and have used everything from oak chips to oak cubes and oak spirals to age the wine in the carboys until I found Beyond Barrel aging staves. This makes a huge difference in the flavor of my wine. I reached out to the owner of the brand and he explained to me that his wood is 5 year opened air seasoned wood which is what would be found in a barrel that would cost more than $5k for s winery to buy. Additionally he uses these long sticks to limit something called end grain because end grain is bad for flavors according to him. I don't know a lot about all that science stuff I just know that the wine tastes a lot better when I age it with these staves. They have French, American oaka and cherry wood . Check out bbaging.com for more details. I use these oak infusion tubes to soak the staves in the carboys. They are expensive but worth it IMO.