History of Cooperage
Oak trees first appeared on Earth during the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era over 65 million years ago, following the Jurassic Period (dinosaur period). Oak trees are part of a genus known as Quercus with over 500 known species in the Northern Hemisphere alone. The preferred species for French oak barrels is Quercus Sessiliflora, also know as Quercus Petraea. For American oak barrels, the preferred species is Quercus Alba.
The cooperage industry and the use of barrels for commerce dates back more than 2000 years. The Romans first used barrels in the 3rd century AD, as a result of their commercial and military contacts with the Gauls, who had been making barrels for several centuries. For nearly 2,000 years barrels were the most practical form of shipping or storage container in Europe.
All kinds of bulk goods, from nails to gold coins to food products, were stored and shipped in barrels. Bags and wood crates were cheaper, but they were not as sturdy and they were more difficult to handle for the same weight. Barrels slowly lost their importance in the 20th century, with the introduction of pallet-based logistics and containerization. Today, the primary use of oak barrels is for winemaking and spirits aging.
For most high quality wines, French oak is the wood of choice. This was not always so. As wood used for cooperage comes from trees an average of 200 years old, suitable good quality French oak has only been available since the early 20th century. Prior to that, most French wineries sourced their oak from Eastern and Northern Europe (primarily Bosnia, Russia, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) as well as from the eastern United States and Canada.
It was the French that perfected the craft of coopering and raised it to an art form. And it was the French that took American oak barrels and raised the bar on quality. Prior to the French wine invasion in the 1980’s, most American oak barrels were used for whiskey and bourbon aging. What worked for bourbon most definitely did not work for fine wine aging as whiskey barrels are too coarse and aggressive for wine.
Winemakers today have a wide variety of oak barrels and oak products to choose from. In addition to a range of French coopers, there are many American coopers that make oak barrels using French techniques. And over the last 10 years, new (old) sources of oak trees are emerging from behind the iron curtain of Eastern Europe and China.
Other than the grapes, oak barrels are the most important ingredient in making high quality wine. Barrels are the winemakers “spice rack”. Given the proliferation of coopers around the world and an amazing array of oak flavoring products (chips, powders, liquid extracts), winemaking and wine lovers will continue to benefit from the use of oak barrels and the art of the cooper.
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