Wine Barrels: Construction & details 

The average wine barrel has a useful life expectancy of five to seven years. After that time, the oak has little or no beneficial flavor components left to impart to the wine, and the barrel becomes essentially a neutral container.

Barrels can be restored by shaving away several layers from the inside of the staves and re-charring the wood, or by adding inner-stave oak slats. This can extend the life of a barrel up to ten years, however the results are not the same as with new wood. For that reason, after the initial life cycle of the barrel, most wineries purge their old stock. Often these barrels are cut in half and sold as planters — not a very fitting end for a work of craftsmanship.

The making of a wine cask or barrel (Wet Cooperage) is a task for only the most discriminating craftsmen. For coopers, quality is intimately connected to the selection and control of raw material. A good barrel can be made from only the best wood, found typically in one-hundred-year-old, or older, trees grown with a trunk diameter usually exceeding five feet. Cooperage oak is of the highest quality, straight, containing no knots or burrs, with little sapwood and regular rings, commonly known as the grain of the wood.

Selection of wood

Logs must be hand split to preserve wood grain without breaking veins, essential to making impermeable barrels. After splitting and planing, the stave wood is stored in tiers, exposed to air and water as the wood is naturally aged by weather. Through exposure to the elements, the wood is purged of impurities, undesirable odors and harsher tannins, which might overpower the flavor of the wine. This aging process takes several years.

After aging, the stave lumber is cut to proper length, tapered at each end, beveled, planed on the outside and slightly hollowed on the inside. After being inspected, the staves are given to the cooper for assembly.

The cooper selects the best staves, assembling them inside a metal hoop that acts as a jig. This operation is known as mise en rose or "raising the barrel". Three metal hoops are forced into place, creating a solid hold on the staves, which are then dampened by the cooper. At this point, the "rose" or partially constructed barrel is placed over a small wood fire. During this step, the inside of the barrel is charred or "toasted". The amount of char has an effect on the wine aged in the barrel. Winemakers can select from Light, Medium or Heavy Toast. The Toast decision is made based on the variety of grape and style of wine that will be aged in the barrel.

Wood fibers, rendered flexible by the heat and humidity, can now be bent using a winch to gradually arch the staves and tighten them to obtain the shape of the barrel. The ends of the staves must be trimmed and a croze, or groove, is cut in the staves to receive the barrel-head. Barrel heads are custom cut to fit the croze and assembled using dowels and river reed to make a perfect seal.

Wine casks and tanks are incredibly grand, stately vessels. Reaching up to 14 feet above the ground they are crafted from the finest oak and represent a substantial investment to a winery and its winemaker. Historically they were the only vessel used for fermentation and storage of wine; but many wineries prefer the control of modern stainless steel tanks and smaller barrels, which are easier to move and maintain.

Often, the wine casks and tanks we recover are the original vessels from the founding of a winery. They range from 1,700 to 10,000 gallon capacity and were built over a period spanning the past three centuries. Constructed of quarter-sawn white oak, the staves were worked by skilled craftsmen and bent into shape over an open fire. Look closely at our furniture and you’ll see the hand drawknife marks from their original makers that we have carefully preserved.

Our first opportunity to work with the white oak wine cask material came in 1991 when we dismantled the tanks at the Italian Swiss Colony Winery in Asti, California (a California Historical Landmark, established in 1883). Currently, our inventory consists of material from six different California wineries, made of great oak trees from as close as Mississippi to as far away as France and Hungary.

The process for constructing a cask is similar to that of its smaller brother, the barrel. (Learn how a cask is made.)

All information has been supplied by:  Whit McLeod - USA