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October 2018 WINES&VINES 55 OAK BARRELS characteristics into the trees and, thus, the barrels. Eric Mercier, president of Pre- mier Wine Cask in Napa, which is the exclusive North American representative for French cooper- age Tonnellerie Dargaud & Jaeglé (D&J), said that he's seen a de- crease in barrel suppliers offering forest-specific oak barrels to their clients. Instead, suppliers are fo- cusing on grain tightness alone. But, according to Mercier, provid- ing clients with forest-specific barrels is one of the few ways to deliver consistency year after year. "A tree grows for about 200 years, pumping minerals from the soil, being influenced by the weather," Mercier said. "So the 'same' tree growing in two differ- ent environments will offer vastly different flavors." Bouchard said cooperages began steering away from distin- guishing forest origin in barrels and moved toward grain-tightness specification after several scan- dals involving cooperages that promoted forest specificity, but in fact were making forest mixes or grain-tightness mixes. "It is pos- sible to find tight grain in most forests, although some forests contain significantly higher per- centages of tight grain," he said. Bouchard added it's easier for boutique cooperages that have a longstanding reputation in the industry to focus more on forest origins and barrel quality. He cited Tonnellerie Billon, which produces 12,000 barrels, and Tonnellerie Damy, which makes 22,000 barrels annually, (both of which are sold by Bouchard Coo- perages) among those cooper- ages that have continuously and reliably branded their barrels with forest-specific names. "It's easier to work with forest-origin barrels when you are not making a gargantuan amount of barrels, just like it is easier to focus on quality when making smaller quantities," Bouchard said. Forest origin can trump grain tightness, Bouchard said. "Some forests are more impactful, such as Limousin or Châtillon. Other for- ests are more gentle, elegant and lower impact such as Tronçais, Jura or Jupilles," he said. He noted, too, that there's been a resurgence in cooperages working with specific forests and branding them that way, including Tonnellerie de Mer- curey, Tonnellerie Rousseau and Tonnellerie Quintessence. Bouchard also stressed that regional nuances affect the staves during the air-drying process. He explained that while the wood dries at the mill, a process typi- cally lasting two to three years, the staves are exposed to exces- sive snow and rain that ultimately help wash the tannin and organo- leptic material. "But the air-drying process that takes place in Cognac and Bordeaux is different than the air-drying process that takes place in Burgundy or other countries," Bouchard said. He cited Hungary as an ex- ample: With no bordering oceans and lack of maritime climate, Hungarian wood is aged at mini- mum for three years before it's coopered because the area re- ceives less precipitation, taking more time for the wood to be con- sidered ready from "a coopering perspective," he said. "And if you already have significantly less tan- nin and organoleptic material in the wood, as a result when you toast, you are toasting less matter so the barrel is less impactful," Bouchard said. Therefore, some cooperages will offer barrels made with wood aged three to five years, which will have a more neutral effect on the wine. Comparative bending methods How a tree's natural nuances ex- pose themselves in the barrel and influence aging wine has to do, in part, with how staves are bent — either by fire, steam or water. "The bending method alters the distri- bution of inherent flavor compo- nents, helping emphasize some flavors and diminish others," said Ed Schulz, international sales man- ager for Premier Wine Cask. The process of fire-bending involves heating unbent staves over a fire pot, softening the fibers and allowing the staves to be bent into the proper shapes needed to create a wine barrel. Bouchard calls this method "the most popu- lar and most traditional," but, "when you fire-bend, you break more staves and the process is more time-consuming and re- quires greater expertise and savoir faire by the cooper," he said. Bouchard explained that the fire-bending process requires a cooper to constantly listen to the WINEMAKERS FIND ALTERNATIVE, LOW-IMPACT SOLUTIONS A nother tactic for deviating away from oak influence is deviat- ing away from oak barrels altogether. Tim Bell, winemaker for Dry Creek Vineyard in Healdsburg, Calif., uses acacia wood for the Dry Creek Valley Sauvignon Blanc blend. "That wine relies on some unique clones of Sauvi- gnon Blanc (Musqué and Gris clones) as well as limited barrel fermentation (about 15%)," Bell said in an email to Wines & Vines. He said he turned to acacia because he didn't like the toastiness he was getting from his French oak barrels. "It seemed to dimin- ish or mask the intensity of the beautiful aromas we get out of our Sauvignon Blanc," Bell said. In the past, Bell had experimented with neutral, previously used oak barrels. But because the winery produces such a small amount of Chardonnay, there wasn't much new oak being used before the barrels were moved to the Sauvignon Blanc program. After tasting trial wines aged in acacia, Bell found it to be the low-impact wood solution he was looking for. Bell uses French-coopered acacia (black locust) barrels with a light toast. "We get almost no wood flavor, so it lets the aromat- ics of the Sauvignon Blanc show really well," Bell said. "It also adds a subtle richness, an almost waxy character that gives the wine a little more viscosity." Bell also mentioned he's using a limited amount (about 3%) of chestnut wood on the Sauvignon Blanc. Unlike acacia, which adds a textural quality, he said the chestnut provides additional flavor without a lot of toast. "It gives a vanilla cream character that I like as a very limited flavor enhancer in our Sauvignon Blanc — sort of like having lemon curds with cream." Winemaker Sterling Kragten of Cass Vineyard & Winery in Paso Robles, Calif., said he uses acacia barrels in the Viognier portion of his barrel-fermented and aged white Rhone blend, Rockin' One — a blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne. "The main advantage I have found using acacia barrels is how it will lift the aromatics of the wine and give it some structure with- out overpowering the fruit character or imparting a lot of tannin," Kragten said. He said Acacia complements the Viognier's natural floral character, while simultaneously bringing the fruit forward without any heaviness of oak. While Kragten experimented with fermenting and aging the Roussanne and Marsanne portions of the blend in acacia, he wasn't as satisfied with the results. Instead, he's chosen to work with Russian oak in the Rockin' One for aging his Roussanne. Kragten said the Russian oak, which is the same genus and spe- cies as some of the French trees, comes from a cooler climate, providing a tighter grain, and thus is less impactful. "Consumers are now looking for more fruit-driven wines, and using these alternative woods has helped me fulfill that," Kragten said.