Barrel Types

barrel types, vary considerably and this list includes some terms used for cooperage, or wooden containers, that are, strictly speaking, larger than barrels.

Before concrete, stainless steel, and other inert materials replaced wood as the most common material for wine fermentation vessels and storage containers in the 1960s, each wine region had its own legion of barrel types. Even today such terms as feuillette, tonneau, and fuder may be used to measure volumes of wine long after the actual containers themselves have been abandoned. As recently as 1976, Jean Taransaud was able to list four pages of different barrel types used in various French wine regions (see below). By the second decade of this century there was a marked trend away from heavy oak influence and towards using barrels larger than the traditional sizes listed below, with capacities typically between 300 and 600 l (80 and 160 gal).