According to Philippe Rapacz of the Seguin Moreau cooperage, who sits on the board of the Fédération Français de la Tonnellerie or (FFT, the Federation of French Coopers,), the “Forest Origin and Designation Charter” aims to stave off unscrupulous French cooperages from labeling their barrels with French forest designations when a portion of the wood used may have come from Germany or Eastern Europe. […]
Knox agreed that if origin is going to be an issue, “[…] Grain types are manifestations of trees and are more important than points of origin; but when you begin to sell things …”
We tried Hungarian oak a few years back and did not like it. I personally like the French better but cost is a huge issue between American and French barrels. Last year it was double the American oak coming it at around 350€ per barrel. We made the leap and purchased a lot more French barrels for the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2008 Nolados. It will be interesting to identify these unscrupulous cooperages.
Oak is certainly not the same around the world - and coopers know it. That said, it would not surprise me that a few might try to ‘manipulate’ their barrels by using cheaper oak and passing it off as ‘100% Frenche’ . . .
We’ve been using a small percentage of both Hungarian and Russian barrels for the last few vintages with good success - they are certainly not as ‘refined’ or ‘long lived’ as their French counterparts, but you can’t beat the ‘bang for the buck’ . . .
The only people you can trust less than winemakers are barrel reps
I don’t view this as a big deal. Going forward, you will try to develop a relationship with cooperages, evaluate their performances and refine your use based on such. This really isn’t different than what you’ve done in the past, you will just be specifying different things when you order. As always it is about finding people you can trust and who deliver the quality you need (as dictated and defined by you) for the price you pay. Barrels are a value judgment in the truest sense: is this particular cooperage delivering what you want for the price? If not, and I presume we all have experienced this, we cut them out of the program. Is this particular cooperage worth, for one barrel, 1.5 - 2 of different origin from this other cooperage? Up to you.
It has long been known that the number of Troncais barrels, for example, has exceeded the amount of wood from the area in a given year. And cooperages buy and sell stave wood to one another or sub-contract coopering when These guys are businessmen and don’t like to say “no” or turn down business.
I see it as calling a spade a spade. I never really cared about the “A”, “T”, “V”, “N”, etc stamp on the barrel in the first place, but rather what grain of wood that specified. At least now, no one is trying to fool anyone else.
As to who is being affected, just look at the material you have been receiving from the various vendors this year. Anyone who used to designate forests but this year is not can’t substantiate to the government’s satisfaction where their wood came from (or they just don’t want to try and deal with the mess). In many cases, it is probably just an innocent lack of concrete-enough paper trails, in other cases, maybe something more sinister.
Anyhow, I see it as us all now speaking the same language.
There are about 400 species of oak, though only about 20 are used in making oak barrels. Of the trees that are used, only 5% is suitable for making high grade wine barrels. The average age of a French oak tree harvested for use in wine barrels is 170 years!
Yeah, but the pertinent question is: What if you can’t identify them?
Care to be a participant in a double-blind experiment, tasting wines vinified from [possibly] pure and [possibly] bastardized barrels? [With maybe some stainless steel or concrete thrown in as a control?]
I understand your point Nathan. On the other hand provenance is another critical attribute in many commodities, esp. when things like knock off rolex watches lead to “control fraud” a la: http://conservationfinance.wordpress.com/2007/03/06/control-fraud/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Do legions of winemakers want the hassle of authenticating the quality and provenance of many of the products they purchase?
Well, you could ask yourself the same thing about the Rolex watch - if you can’t tell the difference between the $5000 original and the $5 made-in-China counterfeit, then what’s the purpose of spending the extra $4995?
Which is not to imply that a great winemaker [or winemakeress] would necessarily be incapable of noticing the difference between an expensive genuine barrel and a cheap imitation barrel, but those double blind studies can turn up the darnedest results…
You make a very valid point. And I myself am conflicted between added and inherent value often. re: “over-priced” wines. However, the history of wine commerce indicates that societies have often sought a fairer balance between quality and authenticity. I would be the first to admit I’d probably FAIL! the double blind you propose. Heck, I was watching a YouTube clip of a so-called world’s best sommelier an hour ago and damn if he didn’t predict the red was Merlot then a Burgundy and then back to Merlot ! Where does a community draw the line(s) ?
A few weeks ago, I had the basic 2004 Donnhoff Estate Riesling - the one that usually doesn’t exceed $19.99 - and I’ll be dadgummed if it wasn’t just about the most profound wine I have ever tasted. [And it was purchased right then and there - off a retail shelf - where it had been gathering dust at room temperature for goodness only knows how long.]
I have kinda given up on being able to predict anything in this stupid hobby.
Maybe you can tell the difference between expense oak and cheap oak - but, then again, maybe you can’t.
Who knows?
PS: I have head big, blockbuster, put-some-hair-on-your-chest reds that were vinified in 100% stainless steel, and it is not at all clear to me why people don’t just go ahead and vinify all their reds in stainless [or concrete], just like the whites.
If you want some more midpalate mouthfeel, then why not just throw the stems in the vat along with the grapes?
Oak barrels leaving France
now turn around €600 per 225 litre unit.
Tax and transport can then add up to
€1,000 on arrival in a country like Chile.
Ten years ago the same 225 litre French
oak barrel would have cost €370.
Researchers at the University of Bourgogne in Dijon have developed a way to track the barrels used for aging a wine: using a mass spectrometer. Each forest has an identifiable fingerprint for its lumber and that can be traced for 10 years after leaving the barrel. The researchers suggest that it could prevent fraud in wine, passing off a less expensive wine as a pricey one. But perhaps its best use might be to track whether the barrels came from the same pricey forest they claim to be from–or a low cost competitor.
Freres is huge in Burgundy. From what I have seen, the shakeup isn’t really turning producers off from using them. Most claim they have always received barrels made from wood from the same forest. They could care less about the stamp that goes on the barrel head.
Exactly my point. You know, some folks really just like to keep things the same. If you have used a certain cooperage for years and you feel like you get good results from the product and find the same or similar enough product later (without markings), many I have spoken to would rather rely on that built upon trust and their own ‘good judgement’ continuing the trend.
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These guys are businessmen and don’t like to say “no” or turn down business.![[bow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/3/34fe6dfbb5b9ca18529c11cea0b49f72cb1f17d5.gif "bow"){kind=small}
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