diff --git a/oceansdb/utils.py b/oceansdb/utils.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/oceansdb/utils.py
+++ b/oceansdb/utils.py
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ import sys
 import pkg_resources
 import json
 
+from netCDF4 import Dataset
+
 from supportdata import download_file
 
 if sys.version_info >= (3, 0):
@@ -39,6 +41,23 @@ http://data.nodc.noaa.gov/thredds/fileServer/woa/WOA13/DATAv2/temperature/netcdf
 """
 
 
+class Dataset_flex(object):
+    def __init__(self, filename, **kwargs):
+        self.ds = Dataset(filename, mode='r')
+        if 'aliases' in kwargs:
+            self.aliases = kwargs['aliases']
+        else:
+            self.aliases = {}
+    def __getitem__(self, item):
+        try:
+            return self.ds.variables[self.aliases[item]]
+        except:
+            return self.ds.variables[item]
+    @property
+    def variables(self):
+        return self.ds.variables
+
+
 def dbsource(dbname, var, resolution=None, tscale=None):
     """
Dataset_flex agregate aliases to netCDF4.Dataset

An intermediate class that allows to access the variables of the
climatologies using standard names.