In a small Missouri town, a cooperage makes barrels that age award-winning Napa Valley wine

Rather than importing barrels from France, Silver Oak Winery in California gets barrels to age its cabernet sauvignon from Higbee, Missouri, a town of about 600 people.
Many wineries in California's winegrowing region age their cabernet sauvignon in barrels imported from France. But Silver Oak Winery, located in California’s iconic Napa Valley and Alexander Valley, gets its barrels from a town of about 600 people in mid-Missouri.

The Oak Cooperage in Higbee manufactures about 90% of all barrels used to age Silver Oak’s award-winning cabernet sauvignon. There’s something about northern Missouri’s white oak, said Tony LeBlanc, president of Silver Oak Winery and general manager of The Oak.

“We've tried Arkansas, Ohio, Kentucky and Minnesota wood,” LeBlanc said. “In our blind tastings, we always seem to gravitate to the wood that we see from northern Missouri. It's really just a symbiotic relationship”