The Future of Coopering

WINEMAKING
The Future of Coopering
Scientific stave selection could change how barrels are made
By Stephen Yafa
W
ine barrel staves and
beautiful women share
at least one thing in common: They’re not always
what they appear to be.
Anyone familiar with
American film noir can summon a long list
of duplicitous femme fatales from Barbara
Stanwyck in “Double Jeopardy” to Gene
Tierney in “Laura.” It’s a little trickier for
winemakers to name the oak staves that
seduced their eyes only to betray their
promise of stellar performance—but the
pain still can be severe and persistent.
The single-vineyard Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon mysteriously develops a
bitter finish after a year in barrel, or the
Russian River premium Chardonnay in
expensive new French oak begins to resemble a vanilla frappé with butterscotch
topping. By then it’s too late to do much
but repair the damage by masking and
blending. These are not skills that most
winemakers feel they should be required
to use when purchasing wood that costs
upwards of $1,000 per barrel.
For at least 700 years, the winemaker’s
relationship to oak has been plagued by
pretty much the same demon: guesswork.
Master coopers in Burgundy, Bordeaux
Highlights
•T
he key criterion for choosing wood for
barrels has shifted in recent years from
the forest of origin to wood grain.
•T
onnellerie Radoux has developed a new
technology to scan individual staves for
polyphenol content, rather than relying
on visual inspection of grain.
•W
ith barrel sales down dramatically,
other coopers are likely to adapt their
own tannin-measuring techniques to
stay competitive.
38 W in es & V i ne s OC TOB E R 20 10
Each barrel stave examined with OakScan’s near infrared spectrometry by Tonnellerie Radoux
is imprinted to encode its tannin content and to help match it with similarly tannic staves to assemble in a barrel with specific tannin characteristics.
and elsewhere apply their visual expertise
to the task of selecting grains, loose to fine,
and to making relevant decisions about
the quality of the oak they steam and bend
into barrel staves—usually after air-drying
the wood for three or more years.
Most often they make reasonably accurate judgments, but looks can be deceptive.
When you consider the extent to which
technology has progressed in transforming
a vast array of industries, simply eyeballing
the expensive wood that will improve or
possibly damage your wine seems quaintly
primitive at one end of the spectrum, and
positively archaic at the other.
Genetic scientists at the University of
California, Davis, for one example, have applied their advanced technical discoveries in
the past two decades to developing clones of
Pinot Noir specifically suited to California
and Oregon’s AVA profiles, and in the process they have helped to elevate this grape
variety from poor cousin to regal empress.
Yet the barrels that age these new
clones contain tannic components that
can be only broadly surmised by staring
at the grain. That’s a little like sticking
a turbo-thrust Porsche engine into the
carcass of an old Studebaker. Well, maybe not quite. Barrel toasting methods
have in fact taken a technological leap
during the past 10 or so years. Precision
wood tannin measurements, however,
have lagged behind, and that imprecision is essentially the root cause—excluding contaminants—of dysfunctional
barrels that fail to deliver as promised.
Tonnellerie Radoux, a cooperage under
the umbrella of Seguin-Moreau, has set
out in recent months to rectify this imbalance—and not incidentally, also to attract
new business. Radoux’s new measurement
process, OakScan, allows the cooperage
to precisely assess initial oak tannin levels
in each stave that will comprise a barrel.
Among others, the judges at this year’s
Vinitech trade show in Bordeaux were
impressed. They awarded OakScan a gold
trophy for its major innovation in wine.
Based on near-infrared technology,
this tool—realized in partnership with
INRA, the French National Institute for
Agricultural Research—can take 5,000
to 10,000 measurements per day. Once
the measurements are completed, staves
are marked, traced and sorted according
to their grain and their chemical composition. As with most involved technologies, the details of its operation are both
mind-numbing and thought-stimulating:
That is to say, they can give you a headache on the way to a revelation.
The breakthrough here, simply stated, is
that scientific measurement of wood tannins has arrived. For years, spectrometric
analysis has been applied to everything from
winegrapes to milk, and some might justly
argue that for coopering it’s long overdue.
OakScan’s infrared readings measure interior
stave tannins from surface to surface, somewhat like night goggles illuminate darkness.
(Continued on page 41)
Trifles make perfection,
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WINEMAKING
Barrel Suppliers
COMPANY
PHONE
Alain Fouquet French
(707) 265-0996
Cooperage Inc.
Artisan Barrels
(510) 339-0170
Barrel Builders Inc.
(707) 942-4291
Barrel Depot
(612) 290-7427
The Barrel Mill/
(800) 201-7125
Oak Infusion Spiral
Barrel’s Best - Vadai World
(626) 289-8250
Trade Enterprise
Barrels Unlimited Inc.
(562) 438-9901
T.W. Boswell
(707) 255-5900
The Boswell Co.
(415) 457-3955
Bouchard Cooperages
(707) 257-3582
Brick Packaging LLC
(231) 947-4950
Canton Cooperage Co.
(707) 836-9742
Carolina Wine Supply
(336) 677-6831
Demptos Napa Cooperage
(707) 257-2628
Gino Pinto Inc.
(609) 561-8199
H & A Financing and Services (707) 812-0195
Heinrich Cooperage
(707) 738-8670
Heritage Barrels LLC
(775) 473-9970
I D L Process Solutions Inc. (604) 538-2713
J & J Wholesale
(707) 935-9834
WEBSITE
COMPANY
PHONE
WEBSITE
Kelvin Cooperage
G.W. Kent Inc.
artisanbarrels.com
Keystone Cooperage
barrelbuilders.com
Mel Knox Barrel Broker
barreldepot.com
Mistral Barrels Inc.
Nadalie USA
infusionspiral.com
Oak Tradition
Oceans of Wine Supply Inc.
vadaiwinebarrels.com
Pickering Winery Supply
barrelsunlimited.com
Premier Wine Cask
twboswell.com
Quality Wine Barrels Co.
boswellcompany.com
Rich Xiberta USA Inc.
bouchardcooperages.com
Seguin Moreau Napa
brickpackaging.com
Cooperage Inc.
cantoncooperage.com
StaVin Inc.
carolinawinesupply.com
Tonelería Magreñán
demptosusa.com
Tonelería Quercus
ginopinto.com
Tonnellerie Bel Air
(502) 366-5757 kelvincooperage.com
heinrich.com.au
(335) 564-19690tonnellerie-berger.com
alainfouquet.com
halocation.com
heritagebarrels.com
idlconsulting.com
barrelbuyers.com
(734) 572-1300 gwkent.com
(724) 883-4952 keystonecooperage.com
(415) 751-6306 knoxbarrels.com
(707) 996-5600 mistralbarrels.com
(707) 942-9301 nadalie.com
(707) 318-0002 oaktradition.com
(732) 240-4993 oceansofwine.com
(415) 474-1588 winerystuff.com
(800) 227-5625 premierwinecask.com
(805) 925-9903 qualitywinebarrels.com
(707) 795-1800 xiberta.com
(707) 252-3408 seguinmoreaunapa.com
(415) 331-7849 stavin.com
(707) 535-9931 www magrenan.es
(707) 746-5704 vinoak.com
(707) 987-8905 tonnellerie-bel-air.fr/
index.php/en_us/accueil
Tonnellerie Berger & Sons
Tonnellerie Berthomieu
(Groupe Charlois)
Tonnellerie Boutes
(707) 968-0664 tonnellerie-berthomieu.com
(510) 799-1518 boutes.com
For more on barrel suppliers, see Wines & Vines’ 2010 Buyer’s Guide in print or online at winesandvinesbuyersguide.com.
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40 W in e s & V i ne s O C TOB E R 20 10
WINEMAKING
Barrel Suppliers (continued)
COMPANY
PHONE
WEBSITE
Tonnellerie de Jarnac USA
(707) 332-4524 tonnellerie-de
jarnac-16.com
Tonnellerie Ermitage
(Groupe Charlois)
Tonnellerie Garonnaise
Tonnellerie Leroi
Tonnellerie Mercier
Tonnellerie Ô
Tonnellerie Quintessence
(707) 968-0664 tonnellerie-ermitage.com
(510) 799-1518 garonnaise.com
(707) 508-5006 leroibarrels.com
(707) 967-9645 tonnellerie-mercier.com
(707) 752-6350 tonnellerieo.com
(707) 935-3452 tonnelleriequintes
sence.com
Tonnellerie Radoux USA
Tonnellerie Remond
Tonnellerie Saury
Tonnellerie Sirugue
Tonnellerie Sylvain
Trust International Corp.
VinOak USA
World Cooperage
(707) 284-2888 radouxcooperage.com
(707) 935-2176
(707) 944-1330 sauryusa.com
sirugue.com
(707) 259-5344
(561) 540-4043 barrelmakers.com
(707) 746-5704 vinoak.com
(707) 255-5900 worldcooperage.com
For more on barrel suppliers, see Wines & Vines’ 2010 Buyer’s
Guide in print or online at winesandvinesbuyersguide.com.
(Continued from page 38)
They produce graphic simulations that look to an untrained eye
like ink beads splattered across a blank page. With a little training,
you quickly see the patterns of tannins that emerge, allowing you
to gauge the differences between heavy and light tannic satura-
ÉLEVÉ
EN
FRANCE
tion in each oak stave. As expected, tight-grain wood produces a
signature pattern that contrasts with looser grain wood. But two
tight-grain staves with precisely the same forest origin, aging regimen and so forth can display noticeably dissimilar tannic concentrations undetected by even the most experienced naked eye.
“Forest sourcing and grain are no longer the sole quality
criteria we use in order to select our oak wood,” says Nicolas
Mähler-Besse, general manager of Tonnellerie Radoux USA in
Santa Rosa, Calif. “Using OakScan, we are able to code each
stave from A to F as to its level of tannins, and fine-tune the
process of barrel making so that we can choose a combination
of staves to meet the client’s specific needs. Do you want to add
structure or soften the grape tannins? How old are your vines?
How long do you plan to age? If eight to 10 months, we’d
recommend medium grain for faster extraction. The longer the
aging, the tighter we’d suggest. And we’d go over the toasting
options to increase or decrease the level of tannins. That’s what
any cooperage might take you through, of course. The difference
at Radoux is that we eliminate the uncertainty factor.”
By measuring the polyphenolic content in oak wood, he adds,
Radoux can determine a stave’s exact tannic level and code it
accordingly. “We avoid the variability you get with staves that
look the same but are actually not. Once you know the initial
concentration of tannins, you can toast with a more accurate
understanding of the impact that every barrel will have on the
wine it will age,” he says. Flavor and aromatic consistency from
year to year—as fundamental to winemaking as fermentation—
also benefit from barrel control.
It can be argued that OakScan’s contribution to the artful
science of winemaking has been long in coming and also has
COOPERED
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Win es & Vin e s O C TO B E R 20 10 41
WINEMAKING
Polyphenol index
Stave Scans Organized by Pallet
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Code article: MG27105
Code article: MF27095
0
500
1,000
1,500
Code article: MF27095
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
Number of staves scanned, Aug. 9, 2009
0
The circles
represent individual staves scanned by OakScan during a in five-hour period
and reflect their polyphenol (tannin) content. Vertical lines separate pallet loads, and
“code article” notations represent two different oak origins.
been inevitable. It follows a progression
that began at least 15 years ago in France,
when cooperages first shifted their sourcing emphasis away from trees to grains.
While most winemakers, myself included,
still prefer to sit around and shoot the
bull about the differences between Allier,
Tronçais, Nevers and Vosges forest oak,
42 W in es & V i ne s O C TOB E R 20 10
the barrel industry, with noted exceptions like Ermitage, evolved to a granular
method of wood selection.
As Alan Goldfarb chronicled (“The
Forest or the Trees,” December 2008)
in these pages, forest designations have
become somewhat elusive in any case.
He quoted François Peltereau-Villeneuve,
the president and CEO of Seguin Moreau
Napa, about the hazards of designating
oak by origin: “It’s not specific enough…
because there’s no forest in Nevers.” A
French governmental movement began in
earnest to curtail the practice of labeling
barrels by forest. And more to the point,
uniformity and quality of grain trumped
geographical source in purchasing wood.
It still does, of course, and will perhaps
become even more critical a determining factor as tools like OakScan take
precedence over visual inspection. Other
cooperages are likely to follow Radoux’s
lead in the coming years. Barrel sales are
way off—as much as 40% since 2006,
according to Christy Thomas, senior sales
manager of Tonnelierie Saury—and that,
in turn, puts pressure on cooperages to
deliver precisely as requested.
Master coopers at Saury, at least for the
moment, continue to gauge tannic content
in stave oak by looking at grain; there are
three classifications: medium fine, fine and
ultra fine, from looser to tighter. Saury
buys from five forests in central France.
Recently merged with Groupe Charlois,
which owns Ermitage and three other cooperages, it prides itself on cutting and forming the wood into staves at its own facility,
and in being focused obsessively on grain
selection to produce barrels that build midpalate and extend the wine’s finish.
In short, Saury represents traditional
coopering augmented by impressive attention to detail. Ermitage is even more
traditional. Sales director Vincent Garry
explains that his cooperage continues to
designate barrels by forest. Are these
cooperages, and many others like them, still
fighting with muskets in the age of automatic weapons? How long, and with what
level of success, will they continue to make
key barrel-assembly decisions based on the
practiced gaze of veteran craftsmen?
The genuine appeal of that old-fashioned approach probably shouldn’t be
underestimated. We are talking, after all,
about winemaking, not widget manufacture. Technology may be a beneficial asset
to the process of stave selection, but it
runs counter to the aura of romance and
intuitive artistry that attaches itself to the
transformation of fruit into fermented
beverage. And one more thing: These
­cooperages produce some of the best barrels in the world, one eye-scan at a time.
Nowhere, perhaps, is vino techno-speak
as vividly exhibited as in Radoux’s PowerPoint presentation of its OakScan spectrometer. The first clue arrives on the first
slide: “Numerous factors of ellagitannins
WINEMAKING
Index of Tannins by Barrel
70
Selection 1
Selection 2
Selection 3
60
Polyphenol index
content variability.” From there we move
to Graphic A: “Acid Hydrolysis of Castagin & Vescalagin,” with text supported by
images of long molecular chains. Sixty-two
slides later, we’ve romped through reactions with ethanol, leaped from vibrational
spectroscopy to polychromatic radiation,
and landed on SN1-type nucleophilic
substitution, with a minor mention of
epiacutissimins, ethylvescalagins, and
malavidin via its carbon 8. It’s not exactly
a sizzling elevator speech. If it were, it
would rally winemakers to use OakScan to
homogenize oak tannin content in barrels
of the same type. In other words, to leave
no tannic level to chance.
Mähler-Besse says, “After seasoning—
wind, rain, all that—we want to find out
what has been the impact of the elements
on the wood after three years. Once we
know that, we go to the winemaker and
fine-tune each barrel to what the winemaker wants—softer tannins, all that. The
best cooper for you is a person with the
right tools and the right wood to get you
the barrel you need.”
Selecting tight grain to achieve a low
level of tannin makes sense to everyone,
he adds. “But you may have an accident,
because our research shows that 20% of
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Number of Staves
Radoux sorts staves into Selections 1, 2 and 3, for lowest to highest tannin levels. Each
vertical bar represents a barrel and its tannin range. Two tight-grain staves from the same
forest can display noticeably dissimilar tannic concentrations.
tight-grain staves actually have a high level
of tannins. With your normal toasting you
may wind up with a high-impact barrel,
not the one you expected or wanted.”
If in fact it lives up to its billing,
OakScan creates a direct link between
winemaker and wood; it gets inside the
head of one and the body of the other to
create barrels that reduce the margin for
error to a mere blip. As with any technology, early adopters who scout the frontier
sometimes pay dearly for their eagerness
to explore new terrain. Still, the rewards
often justify the gamble, and OakScan
will surely seem like a wise bet to many
wineries trying to boost their odds for
producing consistent vintages.
Stephen Yafa produces limited release Pinot
Noir in the Russian River Valley for his winery,
Segue Cellars, seguecellars.com. To comment
on this article, e-mail edit@winesandvines.com.
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Win es & Vin es O C TO B E R 20 10 43