Grands Vins de Bordeaux - Ets MILHADE & Fils Négociants en Vins depuis 1938 - La Fabrication des Barriques

From Vine to Wine

The Vine

Seasons

The Grape

Grape Varieties

The Vinification

Red Wine

White Wine

The Ageing

Barrels

Wood Endowing

The Tasting

The Sight

The Taste

The Smell

Fabrication of the Barrels

I. The selection of wood II. The slip of wood III. The drying process of the cask-wood IV. The stave V. The making of the bottom VI. The assembling VII. The heating VIII. The finishing The oak wood is tough, impervious and easy to cut up by chopping. Moreover its good resistance to the bending is well-known. A slight porosity and a chemical composition endow the wine with a coloration and very appreciated tastes. Here are the numerous operations necessary to the making of barrels, from the wood selection to the chopping of wood and to the building of barrels. I. The selection of wood SAmong more than 250 oak species in the world, only the sessile oaks(durmast), pedonculated in Europe and white oaks in the North of America have an economic importance and have an interest for the cooperage industry. The forests of durmast oak in Central France correspond to areas of slow and regular growth. The trees can reach 25 to 30 meters heigh, the trunks are straight, wide with a delicate texture; those woods will be used for the making of wine barrels. The forests in the Limousin contain pedonculated oak that are less homogenous, more winding. They grow quicker and their constitution is weaker. Richer in tannins than the sessile oaks, the Limousin oaks are rather used for the ageing of spirits. Depending on the demand, the cooper is going to select the wood to buy. This can be carried out in several stages: - From September to November, a pre-selection of uncut wood is led in accordance with the cooperage criterion ( straight trunks, big diameter, absence of nodes). The trees are located and marked. - In October, the purchase of wood is made by “descendant auction sales” (ONF sales) - From November to February, the foresters conduct the felling while the tree is out of sap. The Milhade Company buy directly the Aquitaine oak after having selected their trees and their felling areas. That method allows to start a highly controlled chain of “traçability”. Usually, the coopers and more particularly the Millet’s cooper’s shop in Galgon that makes our barrels, checks and delivers the berry and arranges the woods so as to separate the woods from different origins. Trunks must have a diameter of about 50 cm. Statistically, a tree provides the raw material to make two barrels. The berry is dried for a few months. The wood is subjected to the effects of the rain, of the air and of the sun; it tenderizes, gets dry and gets rid of a bitterness by the washing of the polyphenolic components (tannins). The first operation consists in cutting up the berry in billets meant for the crack with a chain-saw. The size of the billet is slightly higher than the intended barrel (from 0.9 to1.15 cm). This over-measure of a few centimeters is necessary so that the craftsman can cut the wood again to the right length after the drying process occurring in all weather. II. The slip of wood The billet is standing under the jack provided with a wedge. The billet is first split into 2 halves lengthwise the rays of wood. Each half is then split into two duplicates that will be once again divided into two other lumps so as to get the staves, the basis that once put together will give the barrel.
		The wood is chopped and not sawn because the grain of the wood has to be absolutely respected so as to grant the tightness of the barrel. Moreover it is also important to make a single split on each lump already cut, each part of the billet is directly divided in two in order to balance the strengths at work on the wood and to obtain the most regular staves as possible. The origin of the stave comes from the cask-wood, that wood split by hand lengthwise the rays.
Each part of the lump split in half is going to provide a stave which cut lengthwise the rays of wood will become orthogonal to the ray of the barrel. One has to get rid of the sapwood (peripheral area of the wood of light colour) and of the “duramen” (the heart of the wood). The first part is coarse-grained and the second one is fine-grained. Both parts have to be eliminated because neither of them fit to the criterion of the porosity of a barrel. Indeed the porosity aimed at creating fizzy exchange between wine and its outside environment at regular intervals. The sapwood and the “duramen” are first eliminated by sawing then the stave will be planed until no irregularities in the wood are noticed such as nodes, rot… Thus at the time of the sawing, internal defects of the wood can be identified; a new selection will be held and some of the woods will be eliminated or will be used for the making of the bottom of the barrel.
At the end of this stage, the wood has been turned into staves of about 1 meter length and of variable width. Considering the set of those rough draft staves, we notice a 80 % loss. Those losses will be used mainly for the heating of the barrel. 1 m3 berry = 0,20 m3 cask-wood = 2 barrels + 2 bottoms III. The drying process of the cask-wood Top of the page After the sawing, we must leave the cask-woods dry. Coming from a wood containing usually 30% to 40% of water, the dampness level of the cask-woods must fall to 14-18%. The drying process can be natural (in the open air for 2 or 3 years) or artificial (in drying steamers for a few months). The natural drying process of the cask-woods is processed in vast parks on a huge flat surface area. The stacking-up is such that it facilitates in the best way the circulation of the air in the stack. The drying of our oak-wood staves takes place on our private drying park near Chateau Recougne (picture). Obviously the cask-woods placed on the top of the stalk, subjected to the wind and bad weather, dry faster than those at the bottom. Throughout the storage, the wood will be subjected to heavy modifications. First it is going to lose an important part of its phenolic components more particularly the tannins that bring bitterness in the wine. This loss is due to the rains that wash the wood. Moreover, those phenolic components have the characteristic to stay in the pores of the wood. Their elimination allows an increase of the porosity of the wood, which is very significant as we explained previously. Thus, after the spring rains, the drying process, strictly speaking starts and can last 2 or 3 years. At the end of the drying process, the strips of wood are sent into dehydration rooms (except in summer) in order to obtain the desired dampness level. They will only remain there just a little time. IV. The stave Top of the page To start with, the strip is going to be rounded off externally and hollowed out internally thanks to a stave machine. The cooper gives the barrel a cylindrical shape. The hollowing-out allows to ease the subsequent bending and to avoid the breaks. Douelle évidée et Dollée Dolleuse Evideuse Then the borders of the stave to-be are planed by a joint machine which carves the borders so as to ensure the contact between the staves and the tightness of the barrel. The central part, wider, will provide the barrel with a bulbious form : le “bouge”. Douelle jointée Jointeuse Finally, the staves are shortened thanks to a « shortening machine » which split them to the right length that is to say 0.9 m and planed them, bending each end over the inside. Douelle écourtée Ecourteuse Throughout those stages, the cooper takes care of sorting the boards out depending on their origin. Once the staves finished, they are controlled and sorted out, this time depending on their length. That will permit to perform an homogenous mixing of woods because the barrel is quite often made of wood from many different origins. The staves, on pallets, are thus ready for the assembling of the barrel. V. The making of the bottom Top of the page
At the time of the manufacturing of the wood, the smallest staves and the saved offcuts are placed next to each other and the craftsman with a pair of compasses is judiciously going to place the staves in order to perform the best assembling. Some river rush from the Netherlands is put between each strip of wood. Its specificity relies on its flexibility and its rotproof nature but it also acts as a joint and ensures the bottom tightness. Those pieces are hooped by pins in tough locust tree wood.
The slab thus constituted must then be carved so as to fit perfectly the barrel. This process is driven by a carving machine with an oval bottom. Indeed the bottoms are carved oval so as to make up for the compression of the joints during their inserting into the barrel. VI. The assembling Top of the page *La Mise en rose* The assembling of the staves is made around a metal hoop. This is called “la mise en rose”. The craftsman selects the staves and assembles them so that the barrel is composed of thirty or so. A chief stave, wider than the others, will be pierced to make the bung-hole to fill the barrel. VII. The heating Top of the page
	First of all, so as to prevent the breaking of the staves and to mark a curve to the wood, we proceed to a first slight heating called “the bending”. The body (staves linked together by a metal hoop) is put above a fireplace fed by shavings coming from the loss of the first stage of the manufacturing of the wood. The heat is thus going to make the wood supple that will become wet at the same time by a wet cloth. Progressively, the body fits stave against stave until the closing.
A second complementary heating of a variable intensity is carried out called “le bousinage”. - Slight heating : the internal colour of the staves is blond. - Medium heating : the tanning is more intensive. - Strong heating : the inside of the barrel is almost black. The toasting alters the composition of the oak. The components of the glucides ( cellulose, hemicellulose) and the polyphenolic components (lignite and tannins) are going to be damaged in liberating scented molecules (vanilla and almond scents) that will endow the wine with a colouring and a very special aroma. This stage is thus of the utmost importance in the making of quality barrels. It will determine the quality of the wine within. We choose by ourselves with the advise of our oenologist the duration of heating depending on the way we want to enrich our wines. In between the 2 heatings, temporary hoops are added. A hoop press made of 6 handles helps to insert hoops into the barrel. Once the barrel assembled, still hot and giving off a nice toasted scent, it goes to the trimming work station to trim the stave heads. The trimming machine prepares the basis of the barrel where the bottoms will be placed. That machine digs some furrows inside the staves. The furrows are coated with a paste of flour to provide a better tightness. (sketch) Barrique rognée Rogneuse VIII. The finishing Top of the page Les fonds sont installés puis l’étanchéité du tonneau est vérifiée avec une injection par le trou de bonde d’eau et d’air sous pression (on parle d’échaudage). Si des fuites apparaissent des pinettes (petits bouts de bois dur ) sont insérées dans le trou qui aura été au préalable agrandi. La pinette y est enfoncée légèrement au marteau. Elle est ensuite coupée et rabotée jusqu'à ne plus distinguer la réparation. Les cercles galvanisés sont enfin positionnés sur le tonneau manuellement, à l’aide d’une châsse (sorte de marteau). Le tonneau est donc totalement formé, il ne reste plus que la finition.Les fonds sont rabotés puis gravés du logo de la tonnellerie. Le fût est poli au papier de verre voire à l’aide d’un tour à poncer. Sur les barriques dites « Bordelaises » , des cercles en écorce de châtaigner sont rajoutés autour des cercles extrêmes, et sont vernis. La bonde (bouchon) de chêne est enfoncée dans le trou ; un linge entre la bonde et la barrique assurera l’étanchéité du fût rempli. Il ne reste plus qu'à ajouter la petite touche finale: Top of the page Les arômes du bois cédés au vin

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