All Oak’d Up– The Wacky World of Barrel Selection

This is the time of year the cooper’s visit.

Over the next couple of weeks I will meet with the folks who make my barrels from Meyrieux, Sirugue, Rousseau, Bouchard, and others.  Those who have been long-time readers of the blog will know that I delve into the anal retentive/ massive nerd-dom of cooperage when it comes to my wines.  To me barrel selection is essential and one of the most important tasks I have as a winemaker. It is also, after picking decisions, perhaps the most important thing in creating one’s style.

French Oak is French Oak, Right?

The amazing thing about oak is the amazing variation of style and quality one can find, even within an industry that typically sources from no more than 6 ot 7 forests throughout France.  This has to do with wood selection, forests used, how the barrels are bent (steam or fire), and toasting length.  For a quick overview I will go through my general notes on forests and toasts accrued over the last couple of years.

Vosges: Typically a wider-grain barrel by French standards with the grain running between 4-7 mm.  The Vosges forest lies in the continental mountains just west of Alsace in the northeast corner of France.  The combination of warmer days in summer, and plenty of rain, lends itself to quicker growing and thus slightly looser grain.  At their best, the Vosges forests are a high impact barrel that can add a lot of sweet vanilla notes, but also plenty of tannin.  Since their grain width is a little broader they make a more immediate impact on the wine, and are thus suited to wines that see only 10-14 months in barrel.  I typically employ a barrel or two sourced from the Vosges in the Rebecca’s Pinot Noir, and have also experimented with a barrel blending Troncais wood with Vosges for the Wildcat Mountain Vineyard Syrah.

Nevers:  Tighter grained than Vosges but not quite to the point of Allier or Troncais, Nevers is pretty much my standard forest when it comes to the Heirloom blends.  I find it typically combines pretty wood aromatics while limiting any coarse tannin uptake that can mar the back palate– though this can vary dramatically by cooper.

Bertranges:  This is a tiny sub-forest of the Nevers forest form which some coopers are sourcing more specialized wood.  The main difference is that the species of oak is different, here it is more purely quercus petrea rather than the quercus sessilis/petrea mix found in many other forests.  Across a few coopers (this is no scientific trial of course) I find the wine to be even more subtle in terms of aromatic contributions, but wonderful at creating broad, rounded, mouthfeel with little sensed tannin add.

The Betranges Forest

Allier/ Troncais:  The Allier is generally considered to be the tightest grain wood on the market.  It grows on poor soils in the cold and damp forests of Central France, both of which work to limit its growth creating wood of exceptionally tight grain– as small as 2 mm.  The Troncais is a specializied subforest of Allier which is even less vigorous and due to its size is more scarce.  Barrels from these forests are most famously used in Bordelaise cooperages on barrels destined for wines to be aged for 20-24 months.  I have found that some of these tight grain barrels are actually quite jarring in the first couple of months but then gradually give up their rambuctiousness to create focused, and pure, wines.

Center of France:  This is an over-arching term that includes all forests of France’s center– Allier, Troncais, Nevers, Bertranges, and the satellite forests of Jupilles and Chatillons.  This designation gives coopers more range from which to select their staves– thereby giving them more consistency from year to year.  From a more cynical standpoint it also means that less-quality inclined coopers can buy lesser wood and cast it off as COF designation.  It is my experience that these designation varies rather broadly in quality and impact and depends substantially on which cooper is responsible for the barrel.

A Few Words About Stave Selection

Before heading onto toasting and cooper difference, it is worth noting how critical the selection of stave wood is.  Remember that forests, like vineyards, are not static places.  There are hills, and valleys, drainage basins, and soil variation– all of which effect the way in which oak grows.  Thus, even within a small appellation such as Troncais there could be marked difference between trees.  Thus, the selection of the wood by the cooperage is critical.  Just as all Sonoma Valley Cabernet is not the same depending on whether it comes from Sonoma Mountain, the Valley Floor, or the Eastern Bench, so goes the oak from any particular forest.

Cooper, Stave Age, and Toasting

Almost all cooper’s offer you the choice of toasting levels.  Some employ the rather standard Medium, Medium Plus, Heavy, etc. while others have pretty house names like “Seduction,” “Revelation,” “Allegro,” “Piano,” etc. etc.  My general feeling is that knowing the coopers style is the most essential thing for not all Medium Plus toasts are the same.  For instance, the Heavy Toast from Tonnellerie Darnajou is more subtle than the M+ of Seguin-Moreau’s SVT (Selection de Vendanges Tardives barrel).

The other factors in barrel selection are stave age and head toasting.  Once staves have been selected from any given forest they are brought back to the cooperage and stacked outside for aging.  There, the wood weathers slowly over a period of time– typically a minimum of 20 months and sometimes up to 40 months.  This weathering leaches out some of the coarser tannins in the wood, and in effect “cures” it.  The general rule is that the longer the wood has aged the more supple and less impactful the tannins will be– though this clearly interplays with other variables such as grain width and forest selection.  The other enormous variable is weather.  Coopers in colder, rainer locations see different conditions than coopers in drier, warmer spots.  Ah, the variables!

Head toasting is exactly what it sounds like– whether the heads of the barrels receive toasting.  I almost always opt for toasted heads as it seems to me the reason for getting a barrel is the toasting and having a rather large surface of untoasted wood (and the resulting rougher tannin add) to be less than ideal.  Toasting the heads does the same thing as toasting the barrel– softening and changing the lignin derivatives and resulting flavor impact of the barrel.

White Wine

Tonnellerie Bordelaise:  This is a tiny cooperage run by the former private cooper to Smith Haut Lafitte in Pessac Leognan.  For the barrel I use on the Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon I used their recommended COF Medium Toast barrel, with a note that I wanted the barrels for white (small coopers may adjust their toasting regimens slightly depending on the wine going into the barrel).  The wood impact was brilliant– a subtle invocation of spice and vanilla on the nose, an enrichment of roundness in the mouth, and little lingering oak flavor on the finish.  Just about a perfect barrel for the Graves Blanc Cuvee Caritas blend.

Tonnellerie Nadalie, “Perle Blanche”:  This barrel was coopered specifically for whites. I was a bit leery as I find Nadalie’s barrels typically on the high-impact side, but this barrel worked out nicely.  More vanillin on the nose than the Bordelaise barrel, and more dramatic in its spice on the palate, the barrel also left a bit more noticeable oak flavor in the finish.  I am happy with the barrel and will use it again but certainly more as a style barrel rather than a bread and butter barrel.

Tonnellerie Damy, Allier M:  When I was filling the barrel I could not believe it was Medium toast, as the inside of the barrel was a richly toasted and it smelled of coffee, cocoa, and toast.  Then again, this is a Burgundy Barrel, but man, this is high-impact.  I am happy I only used this for 10% of the blend as it created a dark, smoky, smelling Semillon that is out of the range of what I am looking for on this wine.  This is a barrel more suited to Syrah I think– and I will be playing with a few this year on the varietal.

Syrah, Pinot, and Heirloom Wine Barrels

Tonnellerie Rousseau:  This, along with Tonnellerie Ermitage, are my favorite alround barrels in the cellar.  No matter what forest, the M+ toast barrels are elegant and polished with limited impact.  They are Catherine Deneuve barrels– elegant and beautiful.  I find they add subtle bits of creme brulee, vanilla bean, and cinnamon spice to the nose, but their greatest impact is on the palate where they inflate and lengthen the fruit while having virtually no noticeable impact on tannin levels.  I have used Bertranges, “Allegro,” and a number of puncheons from Rousseau and just adore them.

Tonnellerie Ermitage:  I love these barrels.  In 2007 I used a 400 Liter puncheon on the Old Lakeville Syrah that may be the best Syrah barrel in the cellar– rich and perfumed, but not cloying or punchy.  I have also used Bertranges M+ and Troncais-Vosges Blend M+ this year and am very pleased.  A bit more dramatic than the Rousseau, but still restrained and fine.  I will be doubling my order of these this year.

Tonnellerie Meyrieux:  Now this is a style barrel.  Never, ever, in a million years would I use only these barrels on a wine.  They are the “bacon fat” barrel– each receiving an extraordinarily long 1.5 hour long toast over 6 different fires, making for a deep and very high impact oaking experience!  That said, when I am making Syrah in particular, but also with the darker and more deeply structured Lorenzo’s Heirloom Wine, I use a single one of these barrels to strike a sonorous base-note of toasty clove, nutmeg, and smoke.

Tonnellerie Claude Gillet:  This is a small cooperage from Burgundy, whose barrels I either absolutely love or, umh, don’t love.  The Vosges M+ barrel from Gillet was the sole new wood barrel used on the 2007 Rebecca’s Pinot (of which I made two barrels), and it was absolutely beautiful.  However, the “same” barrel this year is dissapointing and I am feeling very lucky that I have played with other coopers.

Tonnellerie de Mercurey “Grand Cru,”:  This was my first time using this barrel and so far I adore the results.  It is a blend of forests typically from the north-central France near Champagne.  Classy, high-toned, while structured and rich, this barrel pairs perfectly with the darkly inflected Rebecca’s Pinot.

Tonnellerie Remond:  I used a couple of these barrels for the first time in 2008– using wood from Allier and Troncais.  So far it is too early too draw conclusions but they seem fine– they do not blow me over for their finesse or for their power– but are clearly quality barrels.

Tonnellerie Nadalie:  The Nevers M+ barrel from Nadalie was THE standard barrel employed by my pop at Ravenswood throughout the glory years of the 90’s.  It has a very distinct dark chocolate, cherry, component that it brings out in wines, and I find it a valuable mid-note to the Heirloom Wines.  I typically ensure to toast the heads of these barrels in order to limit their not-insubstantial tannin add.

Tonnellerie Boutes:  Though this is a barrel I typically employ more for Cab blends (they are a Bordelaise cooper after all), I experimented with a Nevers M+ TH barrel on the Bedrock Heirloom in 2008, and a Grand Reserve barrel on the Lorenzo’s Heirloom.  Both fit nicely with the cooper profile as they are elegact, mouth-feel barrels.  In fact, when tasting the Lorenzo’s I can barely even notice oak on the nose, but the feeling of levity and richness on the palate is unbelievable.  I know some winemakers have a hard time rationalizing the cost of these barrels (they are typically the most expensive barrels I buy) considering their subtle and not overt impact; to me this is THE reason to use them.

Seguin-Moreau:  This year I experimented with the 350 Liter, thickly staved (35 mm vs 27 mm), Muid D’Oc barrel on the Bald Mountain Syrah.  Like other Seguin-Moreau efforts this is relatively high-impact, suave, and proper.  I do not really know how to explain it, but it almost seems too buttoned up without enough personality.  That said, I will play with a few more as I find the Bald Mountain Syrah to not be as expressive as other Syrah’s right now, and perhaps is not properly matched to the barrel.  The SVT barrel I used on the Cabernet is similarly “proper” but is clearly a reliable standard.  There is a reason why S-M is the biggest cooper in the world.

Tonnellerie Cadus:  Like Damy, Billon, and Vicard, these barrels emanate from the Bouchard constellation of cooperages.  As I tend towards smaller folks I thought I was not going to love these barrels, but I have to admit that the Allier 30 mois M+ TH is a pretty gentile and suave barrel for the Heirloom blends and Pinot Noir.  Tight grained and highly aromatic, I like these quite a bit.

Tonnellerie Saury:  I used a La Bourgogne barrel on the 2007 Kick Ranch Syrah and am not pleased with the results.  It had a harsh immediate impact with lots of tannins that have not resolved particularly well.  That said, I am fond of the guy who sells them, and I like other peoples wine from the barrels, so I need to get over it and try again (but it is so hard when there are so many other great options out there!).

Tonnellerie Marsannay:  This is the Burgundian sister cooperage to Tonnellerie Nadalie.  I used a Troncais barrel from them on the 2007 Bedrock Heirloom which had the expected shy but elegant impact.  Unfortunately the barrel also leaked, lending to the “well, what’s left is great!”  In tasting with other winemakers I have found the Marsannay barrels ot be of relatively high-impact with some rather scratchy tannin, so I have resisted using too many other iterations from the cooper.

Bordeaux Barrels

Tonnellerie Darnajou:  This tiny cooper in Saint-Emilion was the former private cooper to Petrus.  They are probably my favorite cooper, in that they create barrels with an absolutely classic Bordeaux inflection– pure, elegant, and high-tone, even at the most powerful toasts.  They also have minimum tannin impact which I appreciate for the naturally tough Cabernet.

Tonnellerie Saint-Martin:  I used a Grand Reserve barrel (a blend of Troncais and Jupilles oak) on the 2008 and am so far happy.  It is way too early to judge this though.

Tonnellerie Sylvain:  I used two COF blends on the 2007 Bedrock Cab Blend.  I found the oak tough, with an inflection almost like sawdust, the first year.  However, in the subsequent 6 months the barrels have become more harmonious– a classic example of how judging a barrel meant for long-aging too early can skew your perceptions.

Tonnellerie Boutes:  The 36 month aged Troncais Selection, is perhaps the coolest barrel I have ever smelled on Cabernet.  It has created an almost exotic, sandalwood and myrh spice, along with classic Boutes refinement on the palate.  Really just lovely.

Tonnellerie Bel Air:  These are classic, elegant, Bordeaux barrels, of whose slightly lower price I am as fond of as anything else.

Tonnellerie Taransaud:  I received two barrels in 2008 but crops were so low I did not have a chance to use them.  They are being ozoned twice a month in preparation for use in the coming vintage.

New Coopers Being Added this Year:

Though I have found a rough formula that I like for most of my wines, I am always trying to search out the perfect barrel.  As such I will be playing with a few new coopers this year.  Tonnellerie Damy for Syrah, Tonnellerie de Rhone on the Heirloom Wines, and Tonnellerie Sirugue on Stellwagen Zinfandel.