The wine was traditionally stored in oak drums. However, wine is now being aged in huge stainless-steel tanks. Winemakers have found steel drums to be a cost-effective option. They can also add oak flavors using oak chunks or oak chips suspended in the tanks.

Winemakers have two benefits from stainless steel wine barrels. They can use stainless steel wine barrels to age wines without adding oak flavor (if they want to swirl the flavor). Second, they can add oak chips into the steel barrel to achieve the desired level of 'oakiness'.You can also find new-age wine (also known as new-age wein in the German language) via many online sources.

Winemakers who use stainless steel barrels for their winemaking process will be able to create new wines. They can create white wine without oak exposure and can closely track the wine's development with a steel wine barrel. Winemakers can mix grapes and yeast from different parcels. Winemakers can blend wines from both oak and tank fermentation in different ratios to get that unique flavor and maximize the complexity. This flexibility allows winemakers to create new styles of wine.

A stainless steel wine barrel has many other advantages, aside from being extremely sterile. Winemakers don't have to deal with problems like floating lids with failure-prone gaskets. Steel barrels can be cleaned with hot water and a barrel washing head. Then, for the perfect finish, steam sterilizes them. They can be easily handled and designed to fit seamlessly into standard wine racks. 

Some winemakers choose to ferment wine in temperature-controlled Stainless Steel tanks, and age on lees, without oak influence or oxidation. This method allows for greater interaction with the wine's lees, resulting in wines that have richer flavors and more complexity. The smaller barrels will have more contact with the lees than larger tanks, which sink to the bottom.