A barrel of magic
With the new oak barrels increasingly expensive and hard to come by, some of a winemaker's most critical decisions pertain to wood maturation - and yet it seems these must be based less on hard evidence than on gutfeel. By Joanne Gibson.
From grape to glass, nothing symbolises the combination of art and science, nature and nurture, the great outdoors and the cosy confines of the cellar, more strongly than an oak barrel. "Trees," as even the unromantically encyclopaedic Oxford Companion to Wine proclaims, "are almost as important to some wines as vines."
Certainly, wood has been the most popular material for transporting and storing wine for two millennia. It was way back in Roman times that it was found to be a more effi cient container than pottery amphorae, and it was only as recently as the mid-20th century that barrels were replaced by glass bottles and tankers for transportation, and joined in the cellar by cement and stainless steel for storage and fermentation.
Somewhere along the line it was discovered that wood (and oak in particular) actually has a beneficial effect on certain wines - and not merely because it supplements primary fruit flavours with the attractive vanilla, toast, coffee and pencil shaving notes of Quercus robur and sessiliflora (European oaks) or Quercus alba (American). Wood also allows for the very slow oxygenation of wine, which plays a crucial role in softening grape tannins (smoothing the wine's texture) and naturally stabilising and clarifying it.
Which is why, to this day, barrels are still regarded as the container of choice for fermenting certain white wines and for maturing fine reds - to the point that producers actually seem prepared to spend more money on new wood than fruit. "Even if you're paying as much as R9 000 a ton for grapes, it only works out to about R9 per bottle of wine whereas a new barrel can work out to as much as R30 per bottle," calculates Klein Constantia winemaker Adam Mason, factoring in the time, temperature control and labour involved. "The cost of wood is at least equivalent to if not more than the cost of grapes. Sometimes I wonder whether we've lost the plot!"
Ataraxia winemaker Kevin Grant reveals that French coopers have recently increased their prices, with the weaker rand putting South Africans under further pressure. Grant is currently paying between €656 and €706 per barrel, which works out at roughly R8 500 to R9 100 at the current exchange rate - a good couple of grand more per barrel than he was paying a few months ago. Meanwhile, Jordan Winery's Gary Jordan jokes that where economists use McDonald's burgers to work out costs in "real" terms, he uses barrels: "We usually work on the basis that a barrel costs the same as a return trip to Europe in economy class. But this year a flight to London is a helluva lot cheaper than a barrel..."
Little wonder, then, that all three winemakers predict South African producers will increasingly look at cheaper alternatives to French oak, such as purchasing American, Eastern European and even Chinese barrels, or cutting down on new or first-fill barrels (with secondfill barrels costing 70%, third-fill barrels less than 50% and five-year-old barrels just 10% the price of a new barrel). Those competing at less-than-luxury levels will also increasingly use oak staves or chips suspended in stainless steel tanks - in fact, Mason himself has had excellent results using "planks in tanks" and microoxygenation (bubbling tiny amounts of oxygen through young wine) with his second-label KC wines.
At the premium end, though, only the best will do - and because there is no official regulation of the barrelmaking business, winemakers such as Mason, Grant and Jordan have to rely on results they have achieved personally rather than the romantic sales spiel of a fifthgeneration cooper (let alone the rumours said cooper might spread about his competitors...).
ADAM MASON, KLEIN CONSTANTIA ESTATE
The main thing for me is that the wood should never be obvious. It should merely enhance, support and showcase the fruit, and augment the structure of the wine. When I started at Klein Constantia, we used quite a few coopers that I have since whittled down - pardon the pun - to four or five. I use Sylvain for the nice aromatic qualities their wood imparts, Taransaud for enhancing the structure of the wine, Radoux because they're a good, dependable all-rounder, plus a lesserknown one (Garonnaise, recently purchased by Boutes) for the x-factor. Every now and again I try someone new, and fortunately I've only burnt my fingers once so far... For our Vin de Constance, I'm trying some Hungarian oak. It hasn't really convinced me for our reds and whites, but it makes sense for sweet wines, considering Hungary is the home of Tokaji.
KEVIN GRANT, ATARAXIA MOUNTAIN VINEYARDS
The most important thing is that wood should never be used as a crutch to prop up the quality of wine. Its use must also be dependent on the winemaker discovering different vineyards' different personalities. For example, putting Chardonnay with a delicate floral character into a heavily toasted barrel would be a winemaker mistake.
It's critical to have a good relationship with a handful of coopers, as each contributes their own fingerprint - even on wood sourced from exactly the same forest. An Alliers barrel from cooperage A will not have the same characteristics as an Alliers barrel from cooperage B. Sometimes the only thing I specify is a tight-grained wood, because it's the one thing you can see you're getting, whereas you can't ever know for sure about forest or even country of origin.
As far as I can take my coopers' word for it, I have only ever used French wood. I would also never use a Bordeaux barrel for Chardonnay or Pinot Noir. It's based on gutfeel rather than hard evidence, but if you think that a cooper in Burgundy drinks Burgundy with his dinner, nine times out of 10, and is constantly comparing his barrels with other locally made barrels, then it makes sense to use Burgundy coopers for Burgundy-style wines.
GARY JORDAN, JORDAN WINERY
This year we've managed to get our barrels, unlike two years ago when the MSC Napoli broke up in the English Channel. But the new lot went around the Horn of Africa to avoid pirates . you see, it's not just about the wood and which cooperage to choose, it's about the shipping and whether the barrels will arrive in Africa at all!
Each cooperage has its own house style. Sylvain, for example, uses a medium toast which results in coffee and chocolate flavours, whereas a Taransaud barrel with exactly the same spec has a lighter toast and lighter tannins, so a wine would need to spend a long time in it - 12 months plus.
Far too many people use far too much new oak, but more is not better. Even Shiraz benefits from less new oak. A trend these days is to use larger barrels, even though it's pretty hard to roll a 500. barrel around. But in South Africa we've still got the lackeys to do it...
WOOD YOU KNOW IT
• France remains the most important country in Europe for oak, with the most
significant forests located in Vosges, Limousin, Sarthe, Nièvre and Alliers, along
with smaller forests in Burgundy, Alsace, the Loire Valley and Champagne.
• Forest of origin is important in that climate affects the density of the grain
(the term describing how tightly the fibrous channels in the wood are packed).
"You might imagine wider-grained woods to be more porous and allow for the
transfer of more flavour and oxygen, but in fact this is not the case because
they've got more polyphenols," explains Adam Mason. "So finer-grained woods
are actually better for aromatic wines like Merlot, while wider-grained woods
are better for polymerising more robust, tannic wines (eg Cab)."
• In general North American oak is wide grained, because the reliably warm
climate and long summer season results in faster growth (this also explains
why South African oak is completely unsuitable). It is richer in tannins and
imparts bold, spicy vanillin flavours, hence its traditional use in big, full-bodied
red wines such as Rioja and ripe Australian Shiraz.
• Some other woods (chestnut, acacia and cherry, for example) have also played
a minor role in wine maturation. "I recently discovered some northern Italian
winemakers using acacia for their white blends," reveals Gary Jordan. "For me,
it really added something to the wine."
THE COOPER'S ART
To make a barrel, you must first plant an oak
and wait a century... Then you must use skills
passed down from generation to generation over
2 000 years, and honed over a lengthy artisanship.
Naturally all coopers insist that their oak
is the best wood, entirely hand-split as opposed
to sawn, and seasoned in the open air, whereas
their competitors (they claim) cut corners... But
here is a brief summary of how a barrel is made:
• Logs are split into thick slabs, following the
direction of the wood's grain. Ideally, the slabs
are then air-dried or weathered (which can
take up to five years) or dried more rapidly,
using a kiln, before being cut into staves.
• The staves are then assembled to form a barrel,
most often around a small fire. The staves
are wet so that they bend over the heat, with
the fire also "toasting" the inner surface of the
barrel (the degree of toast greatly affecting the
flavours the barrel will impart to the wine).
• The staves are held in place by iron hoops
hammered into place. The ends of the barrel
are made of pegged oak, and wedges are
inserted to ensure a perfect seal.
