COOPERING - BARRELS FOR WINE

Traditional Cooperage still applies by selecting good condition, thick stave, French or American oak barrels which you are about to take out of circulation. The barrels, once emptied are kept sulphured. The process starts by disassembling the barrel and machining/shaving the inside face of each stave, back to clean white wood. The chime is shaved by hand and any blisters are opened up and removed. The headboards are also shaved and placed aside to dry.

The barrels are then reassembled and left open to dry for about 10 – 14 days depending on the weather. They are then toasted over an open fire using oak blocks until they reach your required toasting level. Once finished sulphur is then added back to ensure a clean barrel.

This process can transform the barrel in a cost effective manner when compared to the price of a new oak barrel, with the added advantage of using your own oak, which the winery is assured of its cleanliness and quality, thus providing environmental benefits of:

Re-use            Re-cycle            Re-purpose

The Cooperage can provide 10 L, 25 L and 50 L and the following:

• Ex Whiskey barrel 190 L (50 gallon), recoopered / 50% sand to staves / 100% to headboards / charred to required level.
• Ex Whiskey barrel, reduced to 100L, recoopered / 50% sand to staves / 100% to headboards/ charred to required level.
• Ex Whiskey barrel, reduced / recoopered / fully sanded – with stainless tap and stand.

Note: the above sized barrels can also be made using new American oak.

The Cooperage is also doing in house seasoning of barrels using:

• Sherry –  put into 225 Litre recoopered ex white French oak barriques
• Port – into 225 Litre recoopered ex red French / American oak barriques.

• Select good condition, thick stave, oak barrels which you are about to take out of circulation. The barrels, once emptied are kept sulphured and when required are disassembled whereby the inside face of each stave is machine shaved back to clean white wood.
• Each stave is then individually hand planed on the remaining three faces and any other deep grain wine stains are removed. The end product is a clean stave which is back to original white wood.
• Infusion Bag Type – The staves are then left to dry for a period of time and are then convection toasted in the oven to your required toasting level. The end product is a tank stave which is toasted all the way through. The staves are cut into blocks of approx. 50 mm, which can then be bagged in 8- 10kg net food grade bags. This process produces approx 14 – 17 kg of staves per barrel (depending on the condition of the barrel and stave thickness).  As the barrels are originally made from 1st grade oak, the result is a high quality product.

• Having a quality factor on top of the extra life from the original barrels purchased.
  • Convenient and cost effective with no added infrastructure required in the tank
  • Benefit in the cost recovery from barrels taken out of circulation.
  • Ensuring a consistent replicable flavour extraction ensured.
  • There is a minimum turnaround to ensure freshness of flavour extraction.