Eastern Europe

Historically, the forests of Eastern Europe were extremely important sources of oak, mainly Quercus robur and Quercus petraea. In the 19th century, Baltic oaks were prized by the French and British, although it is not clear exactly how much oak suitable for cooperage is left in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Before the Second World War, Polish, Russian, and Baltic oaks were important in both the beer and wine industries and in the 1990s coopers were scouting east keenly in search of good-quality wood that could be bought more cheaply than French oak. Political changes in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s immediately resulted in offers of Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Russian, and Moravian oak barrels to winemakers in the west. Some coopers have conducted successful trials of wines matured in eastern European oak and, although there is still much to be learnt about making barrels with these woods, sales have grown. Current estimates place annual sales at over 20,000 barrels. Hungary in particular has benefited from good forestry management for over two centuries. The ratio of annual growth of oak to annual harvest is around 2.5 to 1.