Roll out the barrel - oak for preference

Mar 28 2008 by Helen Savage, The Journal

NO ONE knows for certain when barrels were first made, but the invading Roman armies were so taken by the wooden casks used by German and British tribes that they were soon rolling out their own.

They were easier to handle, lighter and more durable than the traditional earthenware jars used in southern Europe. Some of those first barrels were made from staves of silver fir, but it can’t have been long before someone discovered that by far the best wood to use is oak. Oak is easy to shape, wonderfully watertight and may add a pleasant little je ne sais quoi to the taste of any wine aged in contact with it.

But the main reason for using oak barrels in a winery is not to add to the taste of the wine. In a well- topped-up barrel, wine becomes stable, its colour is fixed and the very gentle process of oxygenation that takes places through the tight pores of the wood helps any harsh tannins to soften. My friend Pierre Carle, who makes very fine wine in Bergerac in south west France, says a barrel is "the place in which all the raw ingredients of the wine come together, just like the way sugar, eggs and flour of a cake combine in an oven."

Earlier this month I went to Meursault in the heart of Burgundy to see for myself how wine barrels are made. The firm of Damy is a family business. They make around 20,000 barrels a year, and export them right around the world.

Making barrels is a long and costly process. The oak comes either from France (traditionally the best, though eastern European oak is also very good) or the USA. American oak is a different species, with a closer, more watertight grain, but also a marked vanillin flavour. Next time you sniff a wine that’s been aged in a barrel, if there’s a strong smell of vanilla the chances are that it will be American oak. If it’s spicy, it’s almost certainly French.

Rioja has long favoured American oak, but times are changing. Hélène claims that oak from different French regions has its own special character – Allier oak smells sweet, Vosges almost mineral, and that from the forests of Nevers is more spicy and bitter.

The raw staves are conditioned in the open air for around 24 months (though cheap American barrels use kiln-dried wood). It takes a lot of tree to make one barrel. Only 20% of the wood can be used and there’s a huge demand for high-quality timber for the furniture industry. Given that the oak used for wine barrels comes from trees between 120 and 150 years old, the world’s great oak forests have to be very carefully managed to keep up with demand.

Once cut into shape, the staves are formed into a rough barrel shape – an incredibly skilled task called ‘making a rose’. All 20 or so coopers who work for Damy have had to serve a long apprenticeship. Inside the cooperage they then specialise in different stages of the barrel-making process. The slightly bulbous shape of the barrel is made by first soaking and then heating the vessel so that the staves bend into shape. Over fires of wood chips the barrels are gently charred or toasted.

The degree of toast to a barrel is important. Strongly-toasted wood adds much more flavour to wine than a light toast, and each winemaker has his or her own preference. Damy are happy to oblige. The size of barrels varies too. Bordeaux barriques are long and thin with a capacity of 225 litres; Burgundy pièces are shorter, fatter and a bit bigger at 228 litres.

Three hundred litre barrels are also made, and much bigger 500 litres casks are becoming popular, especially with Rhône Valley vintners – they allow the flavours of the wine to develop but add less oaky flavour.

A new barrel will set you back around £400. They can then be used for about five years, and though some reconditioning is possible, after that they are really only good to be made into plant pots.

Wine of the week

Madiran, Reserve des Tuguets 2005, Tesco, £4.99 (half-price offer)

A big, chunky red with the smell of black cherry jam and leather, and a firm tannic flavour that ends with a twist of licorice. One for steak and chips.

Wine Bites

TESCO’S Spring Wine Festival has just begun with massive reductions on around 120 wines.

My pick of the half-price offers include a very fine oak aged, creamy, complex white Burgundy Montagny Vieilles Vignes down to £6.57 and the chunky red Rhône, Caves St Pierre, Côtes du Rhône Villages down to £3.99. The hottest champagne deal is the deliciously elegant Charles de Cazanove Brut, half-price at £13.09.

THE quickest and best guide to supermarket wine bargains is www.quaffersoffers.co.uk

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