Barrel Making

barrel making, involves far more than mere mechanics and the ability to fashion a watertight container out of nothing but bent wood. As outlined in detail in wood influence, every stage of barrel manufacture has an impact on wine matured in that barrel. First, the tree is cut down, usually during the autumn or winter when the sap is down. coopers usually buy long sections of trunk, from trees that are ideally over 100 years old, and then the process that turns logs into stave wood begins.

1. Chatonnet, P., ‘Origin and processing of oak used in cooperage’ and ‘Aromatic compounds yielded by oak into wine’, in Le Bois et la qualité des vins et eaux-de-vie (Bordeaux, 1992).
2. Schahinger, G., and Rankine, B., Cooperage for Winemakers (rev. edn, Adelaide, 2005).
3. Sefton, M. A., ‘How does oak barrel maturation contribute to wine flavor?’, Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal (Feb 1991).
4. Sefton, M. A., et al., ‘Influence of seasoning on the sensory characteristics and composition of oak extracts’, in International Oak Symposium (San Francisco, 1993).
5. Taransaud, J., Le Livre de la tonnellerie (Paris, 1976).
6. Vivas, N., Manuel de tonnellerie à l’usage des utilisateurs de futaille (2nd edn, Bordeaux, 2002).