cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
17137
Do Wineries have us over a (French Oak) Barrel?
At least those who like oak in their wine -- Sure, they can add some chips, or play chemistry tricks, but there's no substitute for aging wine in barrels. A few decades ago my wife and I toured France every summer in our Citroen 2CVs, and I have recently uncovered some of our wine explorations. I hope you enjoy this expose on a little-known part of the process of making wine - the barrel.
How to Make a Wine Barrel
2. Take a cheerful and inquisitive woman with you, who asks "How do you make such great wine?"
3. Get invited to a big warehouse on a hot summer day, filled with sweaty men without shirts
4. They saw and plane the oak boards (which keeps the women interested, for some reason)
5. Selecting the slats and fitting them into a metal ring
6. This is harder than it looks - a bit like the game "pick up sticks"
7. Flip over the boards and tap on a couple new rings
8. Keep the women back from the sweaty, muscley men putting a rope around the boards
9. Boring a hole for the bung
10. Giant machine which forces on more of the rings around the wood
11. Quality control and fitting the bottom(s)
12. More trimming, fitting, cleaning and polishing with big machines
Orders from far-off California
On our trips, sometimes we camped...
... while other times we stayed in fancy B & B rooms.
But we always found a good meal. This looks like whitebait or tiny sardines.
Shortly after this meal we went north to Cognac, and saw another barrel-making exhibit - only this time in a museum showing "the old way"
It wasn't that different, with the exception of no big machines.
I hope you have enjoyed the short tour.
It's a Breitling Aerospace, in case you are wondering. And Yes, the Cognac was delicious, thanks!
Cheers,
Cazalea
Do Wineries have us over a (French Oak) Barrel?
At least those who like oak in their wine -- Sure, they can add some chips, or play chemistry tricks, but there's no substitute for aging wine in barrels. A few decades ago my wife and I toured France every summer in our Citroen 2CVs, and I have recently ...
Thank you for sharing another one of your adventures, Mike!
Shirtless men or not, France is a place we too always keep going back to, where like you, we have walked down a few cellars as well. Cheers, Alex ...
Entertaining....
pictorial which, given your title, immediately reminded me of a story my mother told me a couple of days ago. She is long retired from her main profession however she needs to continue working for a while in order to sustain living locally so she spent so...
Thanks for sharing
Being a whisky nut, it’s good to see how the casks are made. Cheers PAt
Just took a wine making class at the vineyard about the importance of barrels...
Seems like you visited a cooperate or barrel factory! Love the photos! Seems like the cooperage process hasn't changed much since you were last there; as I'm under the impression that barrels are still made in such a fashion!
